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I. Religion. Shintoism but coexisting with Buddhism** Later in the Nara period(AD 710 to 794), because Shintoism lacked its scriptures and and had few prayers, it adopted the Buddhist rituals, and was called as the Shingon Buddhist rituals. However, after the invasion of the Mongols, the national consciousness of the role of Kamikazi, was evoked in defeating the enemy. - Kamikazi is literally translated and the divine wind, but in this sense, it means the need of self-sacrifce when mass destruction is possible= suacide attack.
 * Muromachi Period of Japan

The Picture on the left illustrates the Kamikazi of the Japanese people during the Mongol Invasion as the Divine wind, coming down from the skies.

Kitabatake Chikafusa, the cheif commander of the southern court forces wrote a chronicle called //**Jinno Shotoki**// which emphasized that Japan shold maintain the divine descent of the imperial line, which gave Japan a special national polity.

This idea, further lead to the **Divine nature of all Japanese and the counrty's spiritual supremacy** over India and China

Shintoism told that practice(actions) and rituals, rather than words, have the utmost importance, and it was charactrized as the worship of ancestors, nature, polytheism and animism, with the focus on **inner purity**. Christianity also had an influence in Japan by the Jesuits (the society of Jesus) led by Saint Francis Xavier, who arrived in Kyushu in1549. Mostly merchants and Daimyo, were the ones who converted for the better trade arrangements as well as the peasants, wanting a better life, or somewhere to rely on. With Kyoto becoming the major Christian missionary area, and with having 2% of the population, 150,000 converts and 200 churches were made by the end of 1582, As a Result: Eventhough the foriegn trade was encouraged, the regulations were extreme. By 1690, exclusion and suppression of Christianity became, a national policy.
 * Shintoism**, from Shinto-buddhist tradition, developed into a powerful national force
 * Shinto=** **the natural spiritualiy of the Japanese.**
 * Japan's tolerance towards the foreign land highly decreased,**

And still now, Japanese people have the mind of possessing spiritual supremacy than other ethnic groups


 * II. Art**

Following the fall of Kamakura period (1185-1333), a military government, the Ashikaga family established a new military governing system in Kyoto. The Ashikaga shoguns-the military dictatr of Japan- were great patrons of the arts, and in many cases skilled artists themselves.

They encouraged trade with China, and Japanese Zen monks who served as envoys brought back a wealth of Chinese art objects.
 * 1) Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism.



**Great Zen monasteries** developed into **intellectual and cultural centers**. The monks in Japan produced the first-ink paintings. Zen monks also transmitted the Chinese custom of drinking powdered tea, leading to the **development of the Japanese tea ceremony.**

The Zen sect of Buddhism, which enjoyed a growing popularity in the early Kamakura period, received the continued support of the new rulers. Andthis meant a lot to the Art of its period.
 * The Muromachi period (1392–1573)** was a renaissance of the Japanese Ink brush paintings.


 * Ink painting** was accepted as a means of **teaching Zen doctrine**. Such priest-painters as Josetsu, Shubun, and Sesshu are the most revered of Japanese **landscapists**. Their works are characterized by **economy of execution, forceful brushstrokes, and asymmetrical composition, with emphasis on unfilled space**.

The Landscape painting of **Shubun**

Reading in a Bamboo Groove

Shubun, a monk at the Kyoto temple of Shokoku-ji, has created in the painting **//Reading in a Bamboo Grove//** (1446, Tokyo National Museum) a **realistic landscape with deep recession into space.**



=> Landscape painting of Sesshu
 * Sesshu**, unlike most artists of the period, was able to journey to China and study Chinese painting at its source. **//The Long Handscroll//** (Mori Collection, Yamaguchi) is one of Sesshu's most accomplished works, depicting a continuing landscape through the four seasons.

During this period **sculpture** began to lose its Buddhist inspiration. During the Muromachi period (1338-1573), also called the Ashikaga period, a big change took place in Japanese culture. The //**Ashikaga**// military clan took control of the shogunate and moved its headquarters back to Kyoto, to the Muromachi district of the city. With the return of government to the capital, the Kamakura period came to an end, and cultural expression took on a more **aristocratic, elitist character**.

The **secular ventures** and **trading missions** to China made many Chinese paintings and objects of art were imported into Japan and profoundly influence the Japanese artists working for Zen temples and the shogunate.

Not only did these imports change the subject matter of painting, but they also altered the use of **color**; the bright colors were yielded to the **monochromes** (using one color, usually black) of painting in the Chinese manner. Typical of early Muromachi painting is the depiction by the priest-painter Kao (active early 15th century) of the legendary monk Kensu (Hsien-tzu in Chinese) at the moment he achieved enlightenment

. <- Typical Muromachi painting.

This type of painting was executed with **quick brush strokes and a minimum of detail.**

Catching a Catfish with a Gourd (early 15th century, Taizo-in, Myoshin-ji, Kyoto), by the priest-painter Josetsu (active c. 1400), marks a turning point in Muromachi painting.

Executed originally for a **low-standing screen**, It was a New style for the Japanese painters to paint on a roll-hanging paper, with the low-standing screen.

With the man depicted on the bank of a stream holding a small gourd and looking at a large catfish. Mist fills the middle ground, and the background mountains appear to be far in the distance. It is generally assumed that the "new style" of the painting, executed about 1413, refers to a more Chinese sense of **deep** **space** within the picture plane.

Another major development of the period was the **tea ceremony and the house** in which it was held. The purpose of the ceremony is to spend time with friends who enjoy the arts, to cleanse the mind of the concerns of daily life, and to receive a bowl of tea served with a gracious manner. The rustic style of the rural cottage was adopted for the tea house, emphasizing such natural materials as bark-covered logs and woven straw.

The Japanese Teahouse was very closely related with nature, giving people pleasure with the nature itself.

The period ended in 1573 when the 15th and last shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, was driven out of the capital in kyoto by Oda Nobunaga
 * III. The End of Muromachi Period**

Ashikaga Yoshiaki, was the last of the Muromachi Shoguns.

Oda Nobunaga was the initiator f the unification of Japan. He initiated a rule that opened Japan to the Western World in 1868. He moved the Ashikaga Yoshiaki out of th Capitol Kyoto, and ended the Muromachi Period. he was a powerful Military person, that unified and conquered half of Japan Territory. And Later,


 * Toyotomi Hideyoshi**, finished his dream of conquering all of Japan

The End of the Muromachi Period

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