* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Ashikaga Shoguns' Sword Collection and Higashiyama Artifacts
足利将軍家の刀剣蒐集と東山御物
The shogunal art collection known as the 'Higashiyama Gomotsu', formed from the reign of Ashikaga Yoshinori, the sixth shogun of the Muromachi shogunate, to that of Yoshimasa, the eighth shogun, played a major role in establishing the culture of appraisal and connoisseurship of artworks centered on karamono.
Description
What Are the Higashiyama Gomotsu?
"Higashiyama Gomotsu" refers to paintings, tea utensils, flower vases, and writing implements collected by the Muromachi shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa (in office 1449–1473). "Higashiyama" derives from the site where Yoshimasa built his mountain villa, Higashiyama-dono (later Jishō-ji). Many of the objects were inherited from successive shoguns. Centered on karamono (Chinese imported objects), including Song and Yuan Chinese paintings, the collection comprised a comprehensive gathering of the finest achievements of Muromachi culture.
Shogunal Collecting and the Dōbōshū
The Muromachi shogunal house also possessed famous swords. Some meibutsu, such as Daihannya Nagamitsu, were handed down in the Ashikaga shogunal house and later bestowed by the 13th shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru upon Miyoshi Nagayoshi. Successive shoguns, including the 3rd shogun Yoshimitsu and the 6th shogun Yoshinori, collected karamono through the Japan–Ming trade. The cultured attendants at the shogun's side, known as dōbōshū, were responsible for connoisseurship and management. Nōami of the dōbōshū, his son Geiami, and his grandson Sōami were called the "San-ami." They demonstrated outstanding ability in the appraisal of karamono, such as paintings and tea utensils.
Meibutsu in Swords
In the context of swords, "meibutsu" does not simply refer to excellent blades. Rather, it refers to "swords with a story," possessing distinguished provenance, famous former owners, anecdotes, and the like. It was systematized in the Edo period by the Kyōhō Meibutsuchō. The certification of meibutsu was also a means of raising the authority of shoguns and daimyō, and swords became an important medium of political and cultural negotiation.
Yoshimasa and Higashiyama Culture
After the Ōnin War (1467–1477), Ashikaga Yoshimasa built a mountain villa in Higashiyama and nurtured culture such as the tea ceremony, tatebana, and sarugaku. When the Azuchi–Momoyama period began, a tendency arose among tea practitioners to revere Yoshimasa as the founder of the way of tea. As a result, Higashiyama Gomotsu tea utensils came to be highly valued.
The Ōnin War and the Dispersal of the Collection
Higashiyama Gomotsu were dispersed by the Ōnin–Bunmei War. In addition, they were transferred to the provinces through grants to various daimyō and through sales to dosō (moneylenders) due to the shogunate's financial difficulties. Many of these objects simply went missing. In the Sengoku period, daimyō came to compete with one another to acquire meibutsu. The meibutsu collecting by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi lies on an extension of this trend.
Later Influence of Higashiyama Gomotsu
The culture of connoisseurship cultivated through the management and appraisal of Higashiyama Gomotsu was passed down to later eras. Many of the extant Higashiyama Gomotsu have been designated as National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties. In the case of swords, during the Edo period, under the orders of the 8th shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune, the Hon'ami family compiled the Kyōhō Meibutsuchō, and the systematization of meibutsu advanced.
Characteristics of This Era
- Appraisal and cataloguing of karamono: Nōami, a dōbōshū, compiled the 'Gomotsu On-e Mokuroku', classifying the works by material and form and recording the painters, subject matter, and so on.
- Specialist appraisal by the dōbōshū (the San-ami): cultural figures in the shogun's close entourage were established as specialists whose duties were the appraisal and management of karamono. The prototype of the mekiki (connoisseur) originated here.
- Taste for karamono: successive shoguns collected karamono such as Song and Yuan Chinese paintings through the Japan–Ming trade, and stamped them with collector's seals such as 'Tenzan' and 'Dōyū'.
- Effect of conferring provenance from the shogunal family: a sword's history of possession by the shogun became a decisive factor in raising its 'rank'.
- Artistic elevation of sword fittings: Gotō Yūjō, who served Yoshimasa, founded the Gotō family of sword-fitting metalworkers, and the style centered on the mitokoromono had a major influence on later metalworking.
- Nationwide spread of meibutsu through dispersal: through the dispersal caused by the Ōnin–Bunmei War and by grants and sales, gomotsu moved to the provinces, leading to the collecting of meibutsu by Sengoku daimyō.