Buddhist Art in Japan - Muromachi Period (1333 - 1573)

1573)

During the Muromachi period, also called the Ashikaga period, a profound change took place in Japanese culture. The Ashikaga 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 popularizing trends of the Kamakura period came to an end, and cultural expression took on a more aristocratic, elitist character. During the Muromachi Period, Zen Buddhism rose to prominence especially among the elite Samurai class, who embraced the Zen values of personal discipline, concentration and self development.

The development of the great Zen monasteries in Kamakura and Kyoto had a major impact on the visual arts. Because of secular ventures and trading missions to China organized by Zen temples, many Chinese paintings and objects of art were imported into Japan and profoundly influenced Japanese artists working for Zen temples and the shogunate. Not only did these imports change the subject matter of painting, but they also modified the use of color; the bright colors of Yamato-e yielded to the monochromes of painting in the Chinese manner of Sui-boku-ga (水墨画) or sumi-e (墨絵), this style mainly used only black ink — the same as used in East Asian calligraphy.

The foremost painter of the new Sumi-e style was Sesshū Tōyō(1420–1506), a Rinzai priest who traveled to China in 1468–9 and studied contemporary Ming painting. Some of his most dramatic works are in the Chinese splashed-ink (Haboku) style. Upon returning to Japan, Sesshū built himself a studio and established a large following, painters that are now referred to as the Unkoku-rin school or "School of Sesshū". To make one of the calligraphic and highly stylized Haboku paintings, the painter would visualize the image and then made swift broad strokes into the paper resulting in a splashed and abstract composition, all done with meditative concentration. This impressionistic style of painting was supposed to capture the true nature of the subject. The Sumi-e style was highly influenced by calligraphy, using the same tools and style as well as its zen philosophy. To paint in this style the practitioner had to clear his mind and apply the brush strokes without too much thinking, termed mushin (無心, "no mind state"?) by the Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitaro. The concept of mushin is central to many Japanese arts including the art of the sword, archery and the tea ceremony.

By the end of the 14th century, monochrome landscape paintings (sansuiga) had found patronage by the ruling Ashikaga family and was the preferred genre among Zen painters, gradually evolving from its Chinese roots to a more Japanese style. Another important painter in this period is Tenshō Shūbun, a monk at the Kyoto temple of Shōkoku-ji who traveled to Korea and studied under Chinese painters. He returned to Japan in 1404 and settled in Kyoto, then the capital city. He became director of the court painting bureau, established by Ashikaga shoguns, who were influential art patrons. Shūbun's most well-known landscape painting, designated as a National Treasure in Japan, is Reading in a Bamboo Grove, now kept in the Tokyo National Museum.

Another style which developed in the Muromachi period is Shigajiku (詩画軸). This is usually a painting accompanied by poetry and has its roots in China, where painting and poetry were seen as inherently connected. This style grew out of literary circles, an artist would usually be given a subject to paint and the poets would write accompanying verses to be written above the work. A famous example is the scroll "Catching a Catfish with a Gourd" (Hyōnen-zu 瓢鮎図) located at Taizō-in, Myōshin-ji, Kyoto. Created by the priest-painter Josetsu (1386?-1428?), it includes 31 verses of many Zen priests inscribed above the painting. In the foreground of the painting a man is depicted on the bank of a stream holding a small gourd and looking at a large slithery catfish. Mist fills the middle ground, and the background, mountains appear to be far in the distance. The painting was commissioned by the 4th Shogun of the Muromachi Period, Ashikaga Yoshimochi (1386-1428) and was based on the nonsensical riddle "How do you catch a catfish with a gourd?". An example of one of the Koans illustrates the style of the poetry inscribed above the painting.

Poised! With the Gourd
He tries to pin that slippery fish.
Some oil on the gourd
Would add zest to the chase.
(Shusu Trans. Matsushita, 1974)

The painting and accompanying poems capture both the playfulness and the perplexing nature of Zen buddhist Koans which was supposed to aid the Zen practitioner in his meditation and was a central practice of the Rinzai school.

In the late Muromachi period, ink painting had migrated out of the Zen monasteries into the art world in general, as artists from the Kano school and the Ami school adopted the style and themes, but introducing a more plastic and decorative effect that would continue into modern times.

• Pagoda of Myōō-in in Fukuyama. It was built in 1348.

• Main Hall of Kakurin-ji in Kakogawa. It was built in 1397.

• The Silver Pavilion of Ginkaku-ji in Kyoto. It was built in 1489 (Art of Wabi-sabi, Higashiyama Bunka).

• Garden of Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto (Art of Miyabi, Kitayama Bunka).

• Ryōan-ji dry garden in Kyoto.

• Garden of Saihō-ji in Kyoto.

• Garden of Tenryū-ji in Kyoto.

• Pagoda of Negoro-ji in Iwade, Wakayama. It was built in 1547.

• Autumn and Winter Landscapes by Sesshū.

• Huike Offering His Arm to Bodhidharma (1496) by Sesshū

• Landscape by Shubun, Hanging scroll, 108 cm x 32.7 cm. Ink and light color on paper, 1445. Located in the Nara National Museum.

• Getting Hold of the Ox, one of the Ten Oxherding pictures by Shubun, 15th century copy of lost 12th century original.

• Kano Motonobu, White-robed Kannon, c. first half of the 16th century. Hanging scroll. Ink, color and gold on silk. 157.2 x 76.4 cm.