Page 92 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

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knows no bounds.... Her late father con- twenty-five stringed zither.... She loved guished warrior and tea practitioner of the
tinued the Numata family, and served as a books by [the Chinese Tang-dynasty poet] late Momoyama and early Edo periods.
retainer at the shogun's camps [where he Du Fu, and would write down [the Chinese The oldest son of Hosokawa Yüsai (Fuji-
found her] a perfect match, marrying her to Tang-dynasty poet] Hanshan's poem Maple taka, 1534-1610), Sansai was an astute and
a Hosokawa. [She] retired to a splendid Grove when she heard the theme of the Tat- loyal vassal who served three military heg-
mansion with colorful beams, and her eldest suta River in a Japanese poem.... Her emons in their relentless quest to unify
son succeeded to the headship of the family. memory will benefit from all her goodness, the nation: Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582),
... Once she saw the cherry blossoms in the and lovely leaves and branches [her descen- Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) and, at the
capital and realized how Buddhism viewed dants] will be countless.... MS Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 (cat. 104), To-
all myriad things as ephemeral. Another kugawa leyasu (1543-1616). In this portrait,
time she stopped at cascades and understood 28 Hosokawa Sansai Sansai wears a robe with the paulownia
how the pines ... kept their color with un- hanging scroll; ink and color on silk mon, the family crest of the Toyotomi.
shaken constancy. When she recited from x l 2l/ x 201 This commemorative portrait was
the [Chinese] Book of Songs, she would dip 107.5 S -S (4 4 A) commissioned in 1670 by San, an adopted
Edo period, 1670
the brush in ink, ponder for a while, and daughter of Sansai, around the time of the
compose a tanka [thirty-one-syllable Japa- Eisei Bunko, Tokyo twenty-fifth anniversary of his death. It
nese poem] on such themes as the rain on was presented to Kôtôin, a subtemple of
Mount Fu and the waves of the Xiang Seated on a tatami mat with a hossu (Zen Daitokuji that was the mortuary temple
River. Again, following Chinese metric po- monk's whisk) in his right hand is Hoso- Sansai had built for his father Yüsai. The
ems, she would spontaneously play the kawa Sansai (Tadaoki; 1563-1646), a distin- long dedicatory inscription, dated to 1670

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