Page 95 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

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The name Yasumasa includes the charac- 34 Inaba Ittetsu nineteenth day of the eleventh month of
ter yasu, which he received from leyasu in hanging scroll; ink and color on silk 1588.
appreciation of his loyalty. He achieved 94.0x54.6(37x211/2) The inscription on this portrait was
fame for his valor in battles, but after ley- Momoyama period, probably 1589 written by Gyokuho Shôsô (1546-1613) of
asu's triumph at the Battle of Sekigahara Daitokuji in the tenth month of 1589; two
in 1600 (cat. 104), he found himself in op- Chishôin, Kyoto of Shôsô's seals follow his signature. Al-
position to the more bureaucratic group of Important Cultural Property though Ittetsu is presented as a priest, ton-
military leaders around leyasu. Realizing sured and clad in a dark outer robe, a tachi
that the age of battles was over, Yasumasa Inaba Ittetsu (1516-1588) was the youngest is at his side, reflecting his status as a war-
retired. child of Inaba Michinori, a military leader rior. According to the Lineage of the Inaba
In this portrait Yasumasa sits on bear of Mino Province (part of present-day Gifu Family, Ittetsu's son Sadamichi asked an
fur, wearing black armor, also shown in Prefecture). First he became a priest at Sü- artist from Kyoto to paint this portrait.
this exhibition (cat. 159). He wears a long fukuji, built by Saito Toshiyasu, the shugo- The style of the painting suggests that the
tachi sword and a shorter wakizashi at his dai (acting military governor) of Mino, painter may have been Hasegawa Tôhaku
left waist and holds a saihai (commander's with Dokushü Kansai as the founding (1539-1610); who also painted a chinsd (por-
baton) in his right hand. A banner stands priest. In 1525, when the Asai family of trait of a Zen priest) of Gyokuho Shôsô.
behind him. On it is a circle, symbolic of Omi advanced on Mino, his father and Portions of the inscription read as
the sun, and the character mu (nothing- five brothers died in action. Ittetsu (Single follows:
ness). A banner with the same design ex- Iron) returned to the lay world and as-
ists today, but the sun and the character sumed the position of head of the family. He was a brave soldier in the martial world,
mu are in gold leaf on an indigo ground. He served as a retainer under military a loyal retainer of the family and country.
The portrait, the armor, and the banner chieftains of four different clans—the In him the mortal and the saintly
were all in the Sakakibara family until Toki, Saitô, Oda, and Toyotomi. Ittetsu coexisted. His image combined the
recently. SY died in Shimizu Castle in Mino on the spiritual and the worldly, the two realities
not interfering with each other....

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