Page 125 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

M I L I T A R Y The daimyo were required to maintain a state of perpetual military readiness, to which end they and
T
TRAINING: HE their retainers had to train regularly. Thus each daimyo maintained training grounds for military opera-
S W O R D A N D tions, and in addition to purely military exercises, they encouraged falconry, boar hunting, and other

T H E B R U S H field sports. A pair of eight-fold screens showing scenes of hunting cranes with falcons illustrates the
large scale on which the activity was conducted (cat. 83). The first Tokugawa shogun, leyasu, was a keen
hunter and excellent shot, and his presentation of a daylong game to the imperial household estab-
lished a custom that lasted through most of the Edo period.
Archery, riding, swimming (including swimming in armor), gunnery, combat with pole-arms,
swordplay, and unarmed combat schools developed along spiritual educational lines. Schools of kendo

124 (the Way of the Sword) that claimed long ancestry, including branches of the Nenryü founded in the
Kamakura period by the monk Jion, were at the heart of the several martial disciplines. The most com-
petent swordsmen would be chosen from these schools to instruct the daimyo's retainers.
The two main schools of kendo throughout the Edo period were the Ono-ha-ittoryu and the
Yagyüryü. Both provided kendo instructors for the shogun, but the Yagyú were also employed as an
undercover intelligence service, which reported on the situation in the provinces. Yagyü Munenori
(1571 -1646) enjoyed the senior post of Ometsufee (literally "eye fixer") to the third shogun, lemitsu; he
had responsibility for keeping the shogun informed of the loyalties and intentions of the daimyo.
The Confucian classics and calligraphy provided other important aspects of a samurai's educa-
tion. His job was to know his duty and to enact it without regard for his own well-being, and being
well-versed in the literature of loyalty was paramount. But over and above the military value of such
activities, instruction in archery and swordplay in particular developed into spiritual studies rooted
in Buddhist concepts of enlightenment. Because an advanced state of freedom from preoccupation
with the self (mushin or muga) was a necessary goal for both swordsman and calligrapher, military
training and literary studies were pursued with the same mental attitude. Other arts such as the tea
ceremony, no theater, flower arranging, and ink painting were similarly nurtured. Whereas in the West
it is said that "the pen is mightier than the sword," in Edo Japan the saying was "the brush and sword
in accord." The stability of the Edo period, and the time afforded for devotion to these refined pursuits,
allowed many people to achieve high levels of enlightenment, just as the system of daimyo patronage
enabled the retained craftsmen to acquire high levels of manufacturing competence.
During the early Edo period duels to the death were common among the rónin or masterless

samurai, anxious to make a name for themselves. One such roving swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi
(1584-1645), killed sixty swordsmen before he was twenty-nine. His reputation was such that swordsmen
from all over Japan sought him out to challenge him in combat, and his invincibility became the subject
of popular lore. The nationalistic fervor of the Bakumatsu era brought heroic tales into vogue, and
Musashi was credited with extraordinary powers and adventures like those of the great heroes of Japan's
distant past. A triptych woodblock print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (cat. 276) shows a fabulous act attrib-
uted to Musashi: he stands on the back of a giant whale, about to kill it with his sword. While all this was
the stuff of fictional romance, Musashi was unbeaten in combat. He devoted himself to kendo study
and eventually reached spiritual enlightenment. Thereafter he pursued more peaceful arts; his sculpture,
painting, and calligraphy could be found in the collections of several daimyo. His ink paintings in par-
ticular reveal an unprecedented freshness and insight. In their transcendence over his terrible study
of life and death, these works may be said to parallel the peace of the Tokugawa period, which relied on