Page 108 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

Peace prevailed in Japan,

Arms: with some interruptions, throughout the Edo period —from the Tokugawa

The Balance military victory at Osaka Castle in 1615, and the final expunging of the

of Peace Toyotomi family, until the disturbances of the Bakumatsu era in the last

decades of the period. It might indeed be said that Japan provided a 107

V I C T O R H A R R I S model of benign dictatorship, for although penalties for transgression

of the Tokugawa laws were severe, and calamities occurred periodically,

the nation thrived for more than two centuries at peace. Central to the

stability of the period was the established custom for all samurai, who

together constituted several percent of the population, to carry two swords

wherever they went, from boyhood through old age. The swords them-

selves were revered as symbols of the whole system of government and

as objects with an inherent spirituality. Some swords are even installed

in Shinto shrines as manifestations of the resident deity. Others are

sculpted and engraved with representations of Buddhist deities or with

invocations to them.

The prototype for the Tokugawa system was the first military

government at Kamakura, established by Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147 -

1199) after his victory over the Taira clan and their allies in 1185. During

the Kamakura period (1185 -1333) it was the philosophy of the samurai

that had the greatest impact on the nation, and although this govern-

ment was not to survive more than a few generations, its code of the

warrior (bushidó) formed the basis on which succeeding military rulers

attempted to control the country.

Opposite: detail of Dog-Chasing Game (cat. 86)