Page 310 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

nation at the hands of a rebellious shugo in tane then turned for support to Ouchi Yoshioki tradespeople to come, leading to the formation
1441, shogunal authority faltered and continued and Hosokawa Takakuni in driving out Yoshi- of castle towns. Early examples include the
at a low ebb until the mid-sixteenth century. zumi. In 1508 Yoshitane regained the title of Ouchi's Yamaguchi, the Imagawa's Fuchu, the
The daimyo Oda Nobunaga in his drive for shogun but eventually fell out with kanrei Hojo's Odawara, the Otomo's Funai (Oita
hegemony briefly restored Ashikaga authority, Hosokawa Takakuni, was again displaced as Prefecture), and Shimazu's Kagoshima.
then ended it completely. shogun, and died at Awa. Coastal and river ports were springing up.
During the turbulent fourteenth and fif- The Japanese use the term sengoku jidai (Age Yodo served Sakai, Kyoto, and the Yodo River
teenth centuries some shugo extended their of the Country at War) to describe their tur- area; Sakamoto and Otsu on Lake Biwa were
influence over several provinces, and some, like bulent history in the fifteenth and sixteenth transshipment points to Kyoto from the north;
the Hosokawa, Ouchi, and Yamana, controlled centuries, and the word gekokujo (inferiors top- Obama, Tsuruga, and Mikuni were small but
large areas of western Japan. Eastern Japan pling superiors) to describe the volatile process active centers on the Japan Sea coast; Hyogo,
(called Kanto), whose warriors were a constant apparent at every level of society. In 1441 the Sakai, Odou served the Inland Sea area;
source of challenge to the government in Kyoto, shugo Akamatsu Mitsusuke assassinated the Kuwana, Yokkaichi, and Ominato gathered the
had been placed by the Ashikaga under the con- shogun Yoshinori and was killed by the shugo commerce of the Ise Bay area; and Hirata, Bo-
trol of a deputy entitled Kanto Kubo, but was Yamana Sozen, to the great benefit of the notsu, and Hirado were developing in Kyushu.
by 1492 effectively out of shogunal control, Yamana fortunes. The kanrei Hosokawa Taka- The Inland Sea was a vital channel for increas-
riven by power struggles between rivals for the kuni expelled Shogun Yoshizumi. The Hoso- ingly lively interregional coastal trade. As in
office of kubo and between rival shugo such as kawa were in turn toppled by their vassals the European and other societies, religious centers
Uesugi and Hqjo. By the mid-fifteenth century Miyoshi, and the Miyoshi then overthrown by became commercial nuclei. These temple gate
some of the most powerful shugo, known to their vassals the Matsunaga. Many shugo towns (monzen machi] included Zenko-ji in the
modern historians as shugo -daimyo f were claimed large territories but lost them to their mountains of Nagano, Ujiyamada serving the
stronger than the shogun and struggled for deputies or other local warriors (kokujin) with Ise Shrines, Sakamoto for the great Buddhist
power among themselves. Lacking a strong more tightly knit domains. monastic complex of Enryaku-ji. True Pure
army of their own, the Ashikaga shoguns were In 1492 this social upheaval was still in pro- Land temples in Osaka (Ishiyama Hongan-ji)
forced to look on helplessly as shugo contended cess. Had Columbus been in Japan, he could and Kyoto (Yoshizaki Dojo) had commercial
throughout the provinces. The Onin War, have observed the emergent sengoku daimyo centers within their confines.
erupting during the shogunate of Ashikaga carving their more compact and better con- Guilds (za) under the sponsorship of temples
Yoshimasa (r. 1469-1473; cat. 214), was a con- trolled domains out of the larger but more in Nara and Kyoto were active in the production
flagration of shugo rivalries. loosely held domains of the shugo. From among and distribution of such commodities as oil,
At first Yoshimasa attempted to govern, but these sengoku daimyo the unifiers of the late paper, and sake. These guilds, enjoying monop-
his authority as shogun was steadily under- sixteenth century, who would reforge the coun- olies and exemptions from market taxes and toll
mined by his wife, her family, and other corrupt try through war, would emerge. Nor did ge- barrier fees, extended commerce but also con-
power-brokers and power-seekers of the sho- kokujo stop at the elite level. Peasant uprisings trolled and restricted it. Commerce was ham-
gunal court. The Onin War was precipitated by (tsuchi ikki), which first broke out in the fif- pered as well by poor roads and by private toll
a rash of succession disputes —within various teenth century, also challenged established barriers (sekisho) on roads and rivers, mostly
daimyo clans and, most importantly, within the authority. Serious uprisings occurred in 1426, controlled by powerful temples but also by
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Ashikaga clan —which served as pretexts for 1428,1429, 1441, 1447, 1454, 1457, 474/ 4 °/ Shinto shrines and perhaps by some shugo. The
two rival shugo-daimyo, Hosokawa Katsumoto 1485,1488, and 1532. Some of the peasant daimyo domains likewise impeded nationwide
(1430-1473) and Yamana Sozen (1404-1473), to leagues were associated with the True Pure trade, as each daimyo sought to promote local
square off against each other in Kyoto in 1467. Land school of Buddhism and known as ikko merchants, guilds, and markets in an effort to
Shugo and warriors from across the country ikki (Confederations of the Single-minded), and strengthen his own domain.
joined the conflict on either side. The war their outbreaks had religious overtones. In 1488 Hakata, Yamaguchi, Sakai and other coastal
destroyed much of Kyoto but decided nothing, an ikko ikki took over the province of Kaga in cities of Kyushu and the Inland Sea area bene-
and even after the fighting ended in the ravaged northern Japan and governed it, in defiance of fited from trade with China and Korea. A care-
capital, outbreaks continued in the provinces. all secular authority, for nearly a century. fully restricted official "tally" trade was
Yoshimasa, unable to control political events, Despite warfare and social upheaval, perhaps recognized by the Chinese authorities, who
abdicated early in 1474. From his retreat at the partly because of it, Japanese society in the late issued tallies to a limited number of Japanese
foot of the Eastern Hills in Kyoto (a villa fifteenth century was vibrant and active. vessels, authorizing them to trade in Chinese
referred to as Higashiyama, "Eastern Hills/' or Responding to the needs of war and the ports. The trade was initiated by Ashikaga
Ginkaku-ji, "Silver Pavilion") he exerted domain-strengthening policies of the more suc- Yoshimitsu, cut off by his successor, revived
through his patronage a profound and creative cessful daimyo, urban and commercial life was again by the sixth shogun, Yoshinori. Shugo,
influence on Japanese culture. vigorous and expansive. In 1492 Kyoto, recover- merchants, and Zen monks of Kyoto temples
After the Onin War shogunal authority was ing from the ravages of the Onin War, was such as Tenryu-ji and Shokoku-ji handled this
increasingly usurped by shogunal deputies rebuilding some of its temples and palaces. Its trade, with part of their profits going to the
(kanrei) from the Hosokawa and other warrior merchant community (machishu) was vigorous, shogunate in taxes. After the Onin War the
families. Ashikaga Yoshitane (1466-1523), famous for sake brewers, money lenders, and Ouchi and Hosokawa families fought over the
installed as the tenth Ashikaga shogun in 1490, fine craftsmen. Sakai, Nara, Hakata, and other trade, the Ouchi eventually gaining a dominant
was by 1494 displaced from the shogunal office towns enjoyed renewed prosperity. As sengoku position. Both clans remained involved until the
by the warrior Hosokawa Masamoto, who set up daimyo established their vassals around their official tally trade withered in the mid-six-
the child Ashikaga Yoshizumi as shogun. Yoshi- castles, they encouraged local merchants and teenth century. Major exports were sulfur,

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