Page 309 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

divided. Instead of the one king described by (cat. 230-233), who enjoyed the patronage of they were annihilated and replaced by warrior
Marco Polo, Columbus would have learned that the Ouchi. shoguns of the Minamoto clan who established
he had two shadowy rulers to contend with, the a military government at Kamakura in eastern
emperor and the shogun, both of whom had Japan; then by regents from the Hojo warrior
palaces in the capital, Miyako, but neither of clan who asserted control over the Minamoto
whom held much political or military power. Politics and society shogunate in eastern Japan and brought child
Real power was wielded by some 250 daimyo, In order to find a source of central authority nobles and imperial princes from Kyoto to serve
who fought each other to defend and enlarge with whom to negotiate, appeal for gold, and as puppet shoguns. The imperial court made
local territories. perhaps claim territory or discuss Christianity several attempts to stem the erosion of its poli-
Since most visitors to Japan came from the and the conversion of the country, Columbus tical authority. One such attempt, led by abdi-
south and west, Columbus might well have would naturally have been eager to learn more cated Emperor Go-Toba in 1221, failed
entered one of the steeply wooded natural har- about the ruler of Japan, the owner of the miserably. In 1333 Emperor Go-Daigo, leading a
bors of Kyushu, controlled by a powerful golden palace described by Marco Polo, and coalition of imperial princes, eastern warriors,
daimyo family like the Shimazu of Satsuma or about the political structure of the country. and Buddhist monastic armies, toppled the
the Otomo of Bungo (present-day Kagoshima Any knowledgeable and candid informant Kamakura shogunate and restored centralized
and Oita prefectures, respectively). It was the would have told Columbus that he had reached imperial government in Kyoto. This restoration
daimyo of western Japan who, a few decades Japan at a time when central authority was at its ended after barely three years with Go-Daigo
later, would prove most hospitable to the Iberian lowest ebb and the country seemed in danger of ousted from the capital by his former ally, the
traders and missionaries in their black ships. In total fragmentation through feudal rivalries and warrior Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358), who set
western Japan Columbus would have gained provincial wars. A sovereign, the emperor up a puppet rival emperor and then took the
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some inkling of the power and wealth of provin- (tenno, referred to later by the Portuguese as title of shogun. The court and much of the
cial feudal lords. He would have been impressed mikado), and a military overlord, the shogun, country was divided by a sporadic but bitter
at first sight of the Shimazu garrison town of both lived in palaces in the capital of Miyako. civil war, known as the war between the North-
Kagoshima, with the volcano of Sakurajima Though they could be described as wealthy, ern and Southern courts. It was only reunited
fuming above it, one of the castle towns that both had far less wealth and political power in 1392 by the powerful third Ashikaga shogun,
were to play such an important role in Japan's than their predecessors, and neither exerted Yoshimitsu, who while dominating the court
subsequent urban development. He would soon much influence beyond the capital. also patronized it and restored its material for-
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have realized that in southern Kyushu the writ In 1492 the emperor was Go-Tsuchimikado tunes somewhat. Any recovery, however, was
of the Shimazu family, who had been entrenched (1442-1500, r. 1465-1500), eldest son of fleeting. In the fifteenth century the waning
there for centuries, ran larger than that of any Emperor Go-Hanazono. He was succeeded by power of the Ashikaga shogunate grew ever less
central authority. He would have seen evidence his son Go-Kashiwabara (1464-1526, r. 1500- adequate to support the court and control the
of the daimyo's power and wealth in the mas- 1526). The court was weakened and financially country.
sive stone ramparts of the castle and its tall distressed, both by the Onin War (1467-1477), By 1492 the capital was beginning to recover,
wooden superstructure, in the awed deference which had devastated the capital and interrupted but the country was still embroiled in local wars
accorded the daimyo and his samurai officials revenues from the court's provincial estates, and and the emperors were too poor and weak to
by merchants and farmers. He would not, by the encroachments of provincial warrior affect political life. Politically and economically
however, have found much gold, other than in clans on these same estates. Nevertheless, the the imperial court was at a nadir. For want of
paintings and inlaid metal and lacquerwork, nor sovereignty of the emperors, who claimed funds, Emperor Go-Kashiwabara was unable to
any gold mines. He and his crew members descent from the Sun Goddess, went unchal- hold either his father's prescribed funeral ser-
might have been showered with gifts, and even- lenged. Though politically enfeebled, the vices or his own accession ceremony until many
tually sent on their way home knowing some- emperor continued to serve an important polit- years after he had ascended the throne. Emperor
thing of the reality of Marco Polo's Cipangu. ical legitimating function; though financially Go-Nara (1496-1557, r. 1526-1557) had to wait
Had that happened, no doubt Portuguese and straitened, and with many of the nobility and ten years for his accession ceremonies, which
Spanish traders and missionaries would have high clergy fled to the countryside for safety, finally came about only through the support of
headed for Japan sooner than they did, and the the court continued to serve as a center of cul- contributions in gold from various daimyo,
curtain would have opened a little earlier on tural leadership. Like his father and his son, including the Hojo of eastern Japan and the
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what has come to be known as Japan's "Chris- Go-Tsuchimikado was a student of classical lit- Ouchi in the west.
tian century/' Or Columbus might have been erature and a talented poet and calligrapher (see In 1492 the political authority of the Ashi-
permitted to stay, perhaps encouraged to make cat. 237, 238). kaga shoguns was not much stronger than that
his way through the Inland Sea to the port of The emperors had headed a strong centralized of the emperors. From its inception the Ashi-
Sakai, whence he could easily have visited the government and ruled in their own right in the kaga shogunate had been a fragile coalition of
capital, Kyoto. En route he might have called at Nara (710-794) and Early Heian (794-898) the shogun and his most powerful vassals,
the castle town of Yamaguchi, where the Ouchi periods. Over the centuries their power had whom the shogun appointed as shugo or pro-
daimyo family ruled over one of the liveliest, been whittled away: first by Fujiwara nobles vincial military governors. The third and sixth
richest, and most cultured provincial courts in who ruled as regents for child emperors; then shoguns, Yoshimitsu and Yoshinori, had exerted
Japan. He would have seen evidence of a thriv- by members of the imperial line itself who abdi- considerable power in the late fourteenth and
ing local commerce in the Inland Sea and per- cated but continued to wield power, making early fifteenth centuries and had generally been
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haps of the Ouchi trade with China. He might puppets of the sons they installed in their able to impose their wills on this coalition and
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even have been shown some of the paintings of place; then by the Taira warrior clan who use loyal shugo to isolate and crush opposition
Sesshu, greatest of Japanese painters of the age dominated the court in the twelfth century till by recalcitrant shugo. After Yoshinori's assassi-

308 CIRCA 1492