Page 61 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

one completely covered with a carved ground of stylized nyoi heads overlaid with asymmetrically placed
and occasionally overlapping roundels. The nyoi-head motif is turned upside down on one pillar, as if
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an exception to the rule would provide a kind of magical protection for the overall structure. Other-
wise this pillar is identical to the other eleven. (A similar reversal of design motifs on one pillar within
a group occurs on all of the gate structures in the Tóshógü, demonstrating the importance of orienta-
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tion and the inherent power assigned to kazari during this period. ) The roundel encloses a stylized
crane spreading its wings against a geometric pattern in the background. A symbol of longevity, the
crane is supposed to live for a thousand years.
In imagery related to that seen in the Nikkó Tóshógü, two Chinese lions are depicted in the
60 foreground of a seated portrait of Tokugawa leyasu (cat. 51), while brightly colored Chinese tigers and a
Chinese-style peony scroll cover a Kokutani-style porcelain sake ewer (cat. 8). The richly colored red,
green, and blue enamels and exotic motifs of the latter are reminiscent of the fantastic Chinese vocab-
ulary used so effectively by the Tokugawa.

EARLY EDO Another development during the Kan'ei era was the integration of foreign and bold Momoyama
POPULAR STYLE period designs into a domesticated context. This process is most visible in pleasure depiction screens
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(yurakuzu), which were popular with the daimyo, samurai, and merchants. The format inevitably
includes Japanese men and women at leisure, playing with exotic objects, dressed in dramatic textiles,
enjoying the latest fads such as playing the shamisen or smoking. In other words, the screens represent
a familiarization of the exotic.
A spectacular example of the genre is known as the Hifeone Screen (cat. 233). Clearly based on
a parody of the traditional Chinese concept of the Four Accomplishments of writing, painting, music,
and board games, the scene depicts fashionable youths relaxing, playing a form of backgammon
(sugoroku), writing love letters, walking a small dog. The first young girl in the composition (which is
read from right to left) carries a blossoming cherry branch, perhaps to decorate an elaborate hairstyle
in the traditional reading of kazari. The male youth leans on his long sword, an action far removed
from the military spirit that dominated depictions of men a few decades earlier. The screen represents
not just a parody of traditional Chinese accomplishments but a commentary on the past and present.
The youths are all clothed in the latest fashions but set against a gold ground with no indication
of setting. The only background as such is a medieval Kano-style Chinese landscape screen, which is
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folded in such a way as to enclose a blind musician. The past is encapsulated, even commodified.
The present concerns revolve around fashion and ornament. A new age of leisure has arrived.
To summarize the shift in kazari from the taste of the ruling samurai in the first half of the
seventeenth century to the more popular expression of pleasure and play in the later half of the century,
Kokutani-style porcelains provide the perfect foil to the Nikkó Tóshógú. Porcelain was first produced

in Japan only in the second decade of the century, and the overglaze polychrome enamel technique
was mastered by the 16405. Thus the Kokutani style, produced from the 16405 to the i66os, was an early
manifestation of the art form. The porcelains were made and fired at the climbing kilns of the outer
section of Arita in northwestern Kyushu. 19
Two distinct categories of Kokutani-style porcelain were produced in separate stages. The first
dates to the 16405 -16505 and was based on Chinese patterns. Brightly colored overglaze enamels —