Page 94 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

abstracted. Although there is no direct re-
lationship, this quality recalls the portrait
of Minamoto Yoritomo (cat. i). SY

32 Kuroda Nagamasa
hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
120.0 X 59.5 (49 5/8 X 23 3/8)
Edo period, no later than 1624
Fukuoka Art Museum,
Fukuoka Prefecture
Important Cultural Property

Kuroda Nagamasa (1568-1623), a promi-
nent daimyo, was the ruler of a large do-
main at Fukuoka in Chikuzen Province
(part of present-day Fukuoka Province).
He first served Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-
1598) and then Tokugawa leyasu (1543-
1616). Nagamasa fought in many battles,
including the 1583 Battle of Shizugatake,
the 1584 battles of Komaki and Nagakute,
the Korean expeditions of 1592 and 1597,
and the 1600 Battle of Sekigahara (cat.
104). He was at one time an enthusiastic
supporter of Christianity, and used a seal
written in the roman alphabet.
Nagamasa is shown mounted on a
dappled horse wearing an Ichinotani hel-
met and, under a jinbaori jacket, a set of
black armor (cat. 162). He is prepared to go
to the front, holding a saihai (com-
mander's baton) in his right hand and the
reins of the horse in his left. The upper
half of the painting is filled with two in-
scriptions. The shorter one, in large char-
acters at the left, contains a poem. It was
requested by Nagamasa's vassal Kuroda
Kazunari and was written by the Zen
scholar-monk Kôgetsu Sôgan (1574-1643);
two of Kogetsu's seals follow his signature.
At the right is a long epitaph in smaller
characters dated to 1624, written by Hay-
ashi Razan (1583-1657), a distinguished
Confucian scholar.

Kogetsu's poem, read from left to right,
follows:
With armor and arms the battlefield round
No one ever argues the merit of a sweating
horse.
If overt power is likened to a plant
It is the plum blossom, that which first
tastes the winds of spring. SY

33 Sakakibara Yasumasa
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk.
112.0 x 46.0 (44 x iS^s)
Momoyama period, early ryth century
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo
Important Cultural Property
Sakakibara Yasumasa (1548-1606) was a dis-
tinguished high-ranking warrior who, with
Honda Tadakatsu (1548-1610), was counted
among Tokugawa leyasu's (1543-1616) four
most devoted retainers, his Shitennd (Four
Deva Kings). Since the time of his father,
Nagamasa, the family had served leyasu.
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