| Title | : | Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0231130570 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780231130578 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2003 |
Today Yoshimasa is remembered primarily as the builder of the Temple of the Silver Pavilion and as the ruler at the time of the Onin War (1467-1477), after which the authority of the shogun all but disappeared. Unable to control the daimyos--provincial military governors--he abandoned politics and devoted himself to the quest for beauty. It was then, after Yoshimasa resigned as shogun and made his home in the mountain retreat now known as the Silver Pavilion, that his aesthetic taste came to define that of the Japanese: the no theater flourished, Japanese gardens were developed, and the tea ceremony had its origins in a small room at the Silver Pavilion. Flower arrangement, ink painting, and shoin-zukuri architecture began or became of major importance under Yoshimasa. Poets introduced their often barely literate warlord-hosts to the literary masterpieces of the past and taught them how to compose poetry. Even the most barbarous warlord came to want the trappings of culture that would enable him to feel like a civilized man.
Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion gives this long-neglected but critical period in Japanese history the thorough treatment it deserves.
Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan Reviews
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Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436-1490)
[Nota bene: This is a twofer.]
Life and Culture in Predatory Medieval Japan
Japan was ruled by its warrior class from approximately 1185 till 1868, with a relatively brief return to that status quo in the first half of the 20th century. That is a long time to be under the thumb of the military, and I know of no other such country on the face of the earth. H. Paul Varley's The Onin War: History of Its Origins and Background (1967) and Donald Keene's Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan (2003) treat, respectively, the political/social/administrative history and the cultural history of the first portion of that span, the Kamakura and Muromachi shogunates, until around the end of the 15th century.
In the late 12th century Minamoto Yoritomo defeated the Taira clan and founded the Kamakura bakufu, thereby forcing the emperor to become a mere figurehead. The Mongol overlord of China, Kublai Khan, sent armies to invade Japan in 1274 and 1281, and though the Japanese managed to defeat the Mongols and their allies (and not just with the help of the kamikaze - holy wind), the strains had weakened the shogunate to the point that the Hojo clan, reading off the game plan of Yoritomo, set up a regent for the shoguns. Now the emperor and the shogun were both figureheads and the actual power was in the hands of the Hojo regent.(*) In the early 14th century the then reigning emperor, with the support of many samurai including Ashikaga Takauji, overthrew the declining Hojo's and the Kamakura shogunate and re-established the emperor's rule. For less than three years. The ambitious Takauji swept away the emperor's military support and founded the Muromachi bakufu. Once again, the emperors were figureheads.
Kinkaku-ji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion), originally erected by Yoshimasa's famous grandfather, Yoshimitsu(**)
This general outline is fairly well known, but Varley, apparently relying heavily on prior work by Japanese scholars, explains the dynamics of the social and political situation during this period; it was anything but static. In Varley's portrait Japan was a constantly evolving and bitter struggle between the peasants, the estate owners, the local samurai, the bakufu representatives and the central government itself, a struggle in which every man was for himself; the local samurai eventually became the big dogs in the yard, at least until Takauji figured out how to bind enough of them to himself to take over. Varley also makes clear the regional differences within Japan that add significant nuances to the picture, nuances also relevant for the Japan of later centuries.
During the Ashikaga (Muromachi) shogunate yet another dynamic manifested itself in which the bakufu representatives gathered the power to themselves, weakening the shogunate to the point that for an entire decade, 1467 -1477, the new powers - the daimyo - fought it out in the capital city itself while the emperors and shogun (Yoshimasa) stood by helplessly. When the Onin War was finally over,(***) very little was left standing in Kyoto (the Kinkaku-ji was one of the exceptions). The fires had ravaged not only the buildings but also all the cultural artefacts accumulated by the emperors and shoguns over the centuries. Fortunately, the most important Buddhist monasteries scattered across central Japan had long become cultural centers in their own right and so some of the brilliant pre-1467 culture remains to us.
Keene sketches this culture for us in his book with an eye towards establishing the claim that the nihon no kokoro - the soul/heart of Japan - was crucially formed during the reign of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa. Though Yoshimasa may have been one of the worst rulers in Japan's history from the point of view of actual governance, his tastes in everything from architecture, interior design, painting and poetry to garden design and the tea ceremony shaped Japanese culture down to the present, at least in Keene's view. Keene succeeds in making this assertion plausible, but for me the primary interest lies in his portrait of medieval Japanese culture, which I have lamentably neglected in favor of other periods. That is going to change.
(*) Eventually, the Hojo regent became a figurehead and the power devolved to the Hojo clan council!
(**) The pavilion was burnt down in 1950 by a mentally disturbed monk and subsequently restored. Mishima Yukio entered into the mind of this mad monk in his The Temple of the Golden Pavilion.
(***) Varley's book includes a translation of extensive excerpts (some sixty pages) of the Ōnin Ki (The Chronicle of the Onin War), written sometime from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the 16th century. It is a very interesting, nearly contemporaneous view of the causes and course of the war. -
Of value to scholars, less so to the general reading public.
Ashikaga Yoshimasa may have been the least effective shogun in Japanese history. When he resigned in 1473, Kyoto, the political and cultural capital of country, had been utterly destroyed by an internecine civil war Yoshimasa was unable to prevent or conclude. Thereafter, he devoted himself to his quest for beauty.
As much as anyone, Yoshimasa's dedication established the Zen aesthetic. In his years as an art patron, he painstakingly oversaw the design and construction of Ginkaku-ji, the Temple of the Silver Pavilion, one of the most beautiful spots in the world. During this time, the no theater flourished. Poetry, ink painting, flower arranging, and distinctive gardening developed reflecting Yoshimasa's tastes and vision. Even the the traditional Japanese tea ceremony started in a little room at Yoshimasa's mountain retreat.
In this book, though, Yoshimasa remains elusive. The surviving documents from that era, the author points out, do not allow for a well-rounded understanding of the failed shogun turned Zen priest and patron of the arts. The author proposes Yoshimasa can be understood through understanding his aesthetics. To the reader, that feels like a circular endeavor.
Donald Keene spends a substantial portion of the book taking his readers through the convoluted history leading to the Onin War. Although well-researched, the telling is not compelling. Even as the fighting neared the Shogun's home, Yoshimasa remained indifferent. Reading Donald Keene's account, it is no wonder. During the years of death and destruction of the war, Yoshimasa inexplicably lived extravagantly and pursued his love of the arts. The politics and war narrative of this book provides little insight to Yoshimasa's choices.
This study also disappointedly provides little insight to Yoshimasa's decision to become a Zen priest and how that practice influenced his aesthetics and the artisans he nurtured.
Through his work as a translator and scholar, Donald Keene opened Japanese literature and culture to the West. He, too, must have felt frustration at not being able to provide a well-rounded portrait of this man who was so important to the development of the traditional Japanese arts, crafts, and culture. -
Read three wonderful books in first three months of 2021. One of the three, Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion is a great way to get started on Japanese history if you are into that kind of thing. i have always been intrigued by Japan and Germany as cultures. While I have read some amount on history of Germany, this is my first book on Japan. Donald Keene is not only an erudite scholar of Japanese culture and literature; he also has a very readable writing style. This should appeal to readers who are put off by more scholarly ways of writing.
If the image Japan conjures up in your mind is dominated by the samurai and clashes of the katana, be prepared for a very different life in this book. Its one of failure and art and culture and simple but elegant tea ceremonies. The broad story is simple. How the last shogun of the Asikaga dynasty: Yoshimasa, having failed to control the country, the administration, the warlords, his wife and finally his son, built and retired to a mountain retreat and spent the last 7 years of his life creating all that we know as Japanese culture today. Its a story of failure in day to day life, but its also a story of elegance and art and culture and soul. You can read the rest, its an easy read.
My big takeaway was this. If you fail in your immediate short or medium term goals, do not despair. Yoshimasa, was a complete failure in his life. But the things he created, that is the Japan we know of today. Who remembers which daimyo fought who; but everyone knows of the tea ceremony, No, flower arrangement and Japanese architecture that Yoshimasa nurtured into completeness. Think long term. -
This small book is a little gem. It is about Ashikaga Yoshimasa, shogun of Japan from 1443, who resigned in 1473 but remained the power behind his son and successor until his death in 1490. Yoshimasa is generally regarded as the worst shogun in Japanese history. During his reign, the Ōnin war raged which was the most destructive civil war in medieval Japan. During that war, when Kyoto was largely destroyed, Yoshimasa hardly occupied himself with fighting (though as shogun he was the supreme military leader), but he did build huge palaces. Donald Keene calls his biography Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion. The Temple of the Silver Pavilion or Ginkaku-ji is, as a building, Yoshimasa’s most visible legacy. After his resignation it served as his mountain retreat in the Higashiyama area of Kyoto that gave its name to the short period of cultural growth that, says Keene, shaped Japanese culture as we still know it. The second and best half of the book is devoted to Yoshimasa’s role in shaping this culture, such as in architecture, gardening, flower arrangement, poetry, painting, the tea ceremony, and nō theatre. This, according to Keene, is what makes out Yoshimasa’s significance in the long run. And he argues it convincingly.
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A concise narrative of the life of Yoshimasa during a turbulent time, who still managed to affect many of the traditional arts of Japan.
And that is what the book mainly is: a narrative of the life of Yoshimasa and his relationship to, for example, garden planning and the Way of Tea.
Because of the title of the book, I would have expected more to be said of the arts. Still, an interesting book and a worthy read to better understand the Onin war and its effects and the part Yoshimasa played in all that. -
Keene's lucid, concise, and humane prose illuminates the life of shogun Yoshimasa and his times. It's a perfect mix of history, sociology, and psychology that leaves the reader feeling like they understand both the man and the time better. Keene is a must-read for anyone interested in Japanese history, and this is an excellent book.
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One is not fooled by the highly discursive accounts and side stories Keene so artfully uses to compensate for the extreme slenderness of the historical resources on Ashikaga Yoshimasa. One still comes away from this book felling that there has been a close encounter withe the man and his mind when in fact the encounter is mostly with his times and the genealogy of those times. Very good.
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Left unfinished. Nothing offensive about it, perhaps a little too sterile. Seemed to take forever to get anywhere with what it was trying to say, so I'm going to set it aside.
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Superb
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Donald Keene comes into this one with an argument: that Yoshimasa created the soul of Japan. Or, at least, that without his sense of aesthetics, traditional Japan would not be the aesthetic marvel that it is. The book is easy to read, well laid out, and includes a lot of interesting material from Muromachi literature. Keene's observations and the way he structures his argument are a pleasure.
Yoshimasa built the Temple of the Silver Pavillion, and was a patron of the arts with a deep sense of detail, apparently. He is considered weak, and criticized for having brought on the Onin war. So, as a governor of men he was, perhaps, not successful. But, as a patron of the arts his legacy is eternal.
I recommend this one highly, if you are interested in a picture of traditional Japan in the Muromachi period.
