Page 312 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

wealth of the nation. He instituted the minting Buddhist centers as Enryaku-ji, Koyasan, tan monasteries in Kamakura and five in
of gold coins, used gold prolifically in his per- Negoro-ji, and the monasteries of Nara, the old Kyoto —and their many provincial satellite tem-
sonal effects and buildings, and built himself a capital. Among the various schools of Japanese ples, forming a network of several hundred
golden tea room with pure gold tea utensils. Buddhism he might have found most in monasteries across the country. From the four-
Still, although shoguns and emperors and many common with one of the branches of the devo- teenth century the most influential Gozan line-
of the daimyo lived in palaces and castles with tional Pure Land (Jodo, or Amidist) movement, age was that of Muso Soseki (1275-1351).
gilded screens and wall paintings and ate off which had been offering the promise of easy Monks of his lineage frequently headed the
gold-inlaid lacquered dishes, none commanded salvation to all —specifically including the com- great Kyoto monasteries of Tenryu-ji, Shokoku-
the immense treasure alleged by Marco Polo. moners — since the late twelfth century. Pure ji, and Nanzen-ji, as well as Engaku-ji in Kama-
The closest to Marco Polo's legend were the Land practice called only for faith —faith in the Jkura and many leading provincial monasteries.
shogun Yoshimitsu, whose three-story Golden compassionate vow of Amida Buddha that all The antiestablishment Rinzai lineages were
Pavilion was completely covered with gold leaf, sentient beings could attain salvation in his those of the Kyoto monasteries of Daitoku-ji
and the warrior-hegemon Toyotomi Hideyoshi Pure Land, or Western Paradise. Salvation (5jo) and Myoshin-ji and their subtemples. Whereas
(1537-1598), who minted great golden coins did not require a heroic religious life; simple the Gozan lineages had been sponsored in the
and flaunted his wealth and power in a golden devotion to Amida, expressed in the formula thirteenth century by the Hojo regents who
tea house. "Homage to Amida Buddha" (Namu Amida headed the Kamakura shogunate, and in the
Butsu, known as the nembutsu), sufficed. This fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by the Ashi-
teaching held powerful appeal in an age of war, kaga shoguns, Daitoku-ji and Myoshin-ji,
when it was believed that Japan had entered the because of their close ties with Emperor Go-
last stage of moral dereliction (mappo), pre- Daigo and their distinctive Zen traditions, had
dicted in Buddhist teaching. The three major been excluded from shogunal patronage and
Religion currents of Amidist belief in the medieval official sponsorship. A perceptive observer of
In describing religious life in China, Marco Polo period were the Pure Land school (Jodo), the Rinzai Zen in 1492 might have noticed that the
lumped all schools of Buddhism under the head- True Pure Land school (Jodo Shin), and the Gozan monasteries, weakened by the destruc-
ing of idolatry. Any observant visitor to Japan in Timely school (Ji). All three branches were tion of the Onin War, the erosion of shogunal
1492 would have noted that there was consider- flourishing in the late fifteenth century. The sponsorship, and institutional lethargy, were
able diversity to Japanese religious life and also True Pure Land school, revitalized and reorga- declining in influence, while Daitoku-ji and
that the various religious traditions generally, nized by Rennyo (1415-1499), who established Myoshin-ji were coming into their own under
though not always, coexisted harmoniously. the Ishiyama Hongan-ji of Osaka as its principal the patronage of the emerging sengoku daimyo.
Buddhism, in a variety of different schools, was temple, was emerging as the largest and most Soto Zen, centered on Eihei-ji in Echizen and
the dominant religious and intellectual force in powerful popular Buddhist movement in S6ji-ji on the Japan Sea coast, was strong among
medieval Japanese society, but the Japanese also Japanese history. Pure Land Buddhism con- samurai and farmers. Both branches of Zen
revered the native Shinto gods (kami), observed tained strong resonances with Christian con- emphasized the importance of seated meditation
Confucian teachings, and were interested in cepts of personal sinfulness and repentance, a (zazen). But whereas Rinzai Zen maintained a
Daoism and in the Chinese cosmology of yin saving power greater than oneself, rebirth in strong Chinese monastic tradition and stressed
and yang and the five elements. Paradise for repentant sinners as well as for the koan practice and monastic life, Soto Zen after
Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines were righteous, and punishment in purgatory or hell the mid-thirteenth century combined zazen
everywhere, and coexisted easily. Most Bud- for the unrepentant (see cat. 213). with prayers for worldly purposes and with
dhist temples had a protective Shinto shrine Pure Land was not the only popular Buddhist funeral rituals.
within their precincts, and Buddhist monks movement. Among the townspeople of Kyoto A Western visitor would have found the
served as priests in many Shinto shrines. In and the samurai of eastern Japan belief in the monasteries, monks, and teachings of the two
cultic centers like Kumano and Kasuga the kami efficacy of the Lotus Sutra, popularized by major Zen schools in Japan both impressive and
and the Buddhas reinforced each other accord- Nichiren (1222-1282), was deep-rooted. And perplexing. Several sixteenth-century Portu-
ing to a syncretic construct called honji-suijaku Zen, which had gained a foothold in Kyoto and guese and Spanish Jesuit visitors, who generally
(Original Ground-Manifest Trace), in which the Kamakura under elite patronage in the thir- expressed little but contempt for most Buddhist
Shinto kami were considered to be local mani- teenth century, was by this time a nationwide religious, admired the simplicity, directness,
festations (suijaku) of the original and universal movement with both elite appeal and a strong and frugal, contemplative lives of the Zen
Buddhist deities (honji', see cat. 211, 241). popular character. By the 14905 its two major priests they met, and found them formidable
Buddhism and Shinto also intermingled in the schools, Rinzai and Soto, spread throughout intellectual opponents:
growing cult of mountain asceticism and moun- Japan, and distinguished Zen prelates moved
tain pilgrimage (Shugendd', see cat. 252). easily and expertly among the courtly and war- There are two sects called Zenshu [the Gozan
Already, however, some Shinto advocates rior aristocracies —as advisers in government schools] and Murasakino [Daitoku-ji], which
objected to such syncretism and to the domi- and diplomacy, as poets, essayists, scholars, are much given to meditation and compari-
nance it accorded Buddhism, advocating a doc- painters, and connoisseurs, and of course as sons, such as: If you spoke to a man just after
trine of Shinto primacy (yuitsu Shinto) which spiritual mentors. they had cut off his head, what would he
encouraged veneration for, and pilgrimage to, In the 14905 the various Rinzai Zen lineages reply? After a lovely flower withers, what
the Ise shrines. could be divided into establishment and anti- does it become? etc. Most of the nobles
A Western visitor to Japan in 1492 would establishment camps. The Rinzai establishment, belong to this sect. Some people hit the mark
have been struck by the institutional authority, officially sponsored, comprised the "Five in one meditation, others in many, and thus
landed wealth, and armed might of such older Mountains' 7 (Gozan) — five leading metropoli- they strive mightily until they succeed. 19

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