The Kamakura period began in 1185 with the close of a five-year war for widespread political power fought between the Taira and Minamoto families. Minamoto Yoritomo (1147–1199) was the head of the victorious family. Subsequent to his victory in the capital, Yoritomo destroyed the northern city of Hiraizumi, where the Fujiwara clan had held sway, and was designated as Japan’s first shogun by the emperor. Yoritomo established his headquarters as Japan’s premiere military entity in an area of eastern Japan called Kamakura. Powers traditionally enjoyed by the court gradually shifted to his Kamakura–based military organization. Under the Kamakura shoguns, trade with the continent was restored, although the Mongol invasions of 1271 and 1281 caused a temporary disruption in regional exchange.
Among the main artistic projects of the Kamakura period was reconstruction of the Tōdaiji and Kōfukuji temple complexes, parts of which had been burned to the ground by Taira forces during the war. New sculptural installations at these temples were designed and executed by members of the Kei School, a Nara-based group of sculptors whose innovative style combined features of Nara-period sculpture with a new sense of dynamism and realism. Studios active in the capital since the Heian period continued to produce as well, but it is the mode of the Kei School that defines Kamakura-era sculpture. In painting, members of the imperial painting bureau and painters affiliated with temples participated in making the late twelfth through early fourteenth centuries an important time for illustrated handscroll production. Along with numerous aristocratic protagonists of various ranks, a new cohort of figures, religious leaders, became a prominent subject of narrative art. Of particular mention is the widespread production of pictorial biographies of founders and leaders of religious movements new to the Kamakura period. Illustrated temple histories, which had begun to be produced during the Heian period, greatly increased in number. Heian concerns that the world had entered a degenerate stage called mappō persisted, and inspired ever more art forms associated with belief in the salvific power of the Buddha Amida. Two of the most common of these are rokudō-e, or paintings of the Buddhist six realms of existence, and raigō-zu painting, depictions of the Buddha Amida coming to lead devotees to his Western Paradise.
In addition to artistic changes attending restoration projects and outgrowths of Heian–period Buddhist beliefs, Chinese Song dynasty (960–1279) painting and architecture profoundly influenced Kamakura period aesthetics. The primary conduits of this influence were Buddhist monks affiliated with the Chan school of Buddhism who immigrated to Japan in the wake of the Mongol occupation of China. Know as Zen Buddhism in Japan, the material features of Chan Buddhism continued to be a major force in shaping Japanese art through the sixteenth century. The term karayō, literally "Chinese mode," is used to describe the complex architectural structures of Zen temples; the meditation gardens within them are known as kare sansui, or dry landscapes. Chan monks also brought ink paintings reflecting the styles of famous Southern Song (1127–1279) painters and a form of portraiture depicting Chan masters called chinso.
The Kamakura world turned upside down during the Kenmu Restoration (1333–1336), when the Emperor Go-Daigo (1288–1339) sought to wrestle power from the Kamakura military regime and restore direct rule to the imperial line. Although he was briefly successful, Go-Daigo was ultimately driven south to Yoshino from the capital in 1336 by his former ally Ashikaga Takauji (1305–1358), who established a new military regime in Kyoto. The next 92 years are known as the Nanbokuchō period, or the era of the Northern and Southern courts, as those backing Go-Daigo continued to hold court in Yoshino, while the Ashikaga-appointed emperors were installed in Kyoto. The conflict was resolved in 1392 by Takauji’s grandson Yoshimitsu (1358–1408), who launched a number of governmental reforms. The Muromachi period (1333/36–1568), which includes the Kenmu Restoration and Nanbokuchō era, is named after the physical location within Kyoto of the Ashikaga regime. Unlike the Kamakura shoguns, the Ashikaga did not wield political control over the provinces for much of the era. In 1467 the Ōnin War erupted in the capital, and by the following year much of Kyoto had been destroyed. The Ashikaga retained only nominal control. The following century, although officially part of the Muromachi era, is also known as the Sengoku period, or the Age of the Warring States. As its name implies, this era was marked by power struggles between military warlords of the provinces.
The Muromachi period was a tumultuous time for politics, and a rich era for the visual and performing arts. The Ashikaga were attracted to the cultural trappings of power as reflected in the visual and ceremonial aspects of life in the court. A number of shoguns were thus inspired to become sponsors of artistic endeavors in the capital. It was in such an atmosphere that Nō theater and the tea ceremony developed, and the painters Nōami (1397–1471) and Sōami (1455–1525) curated and catalogued the shogunal collection of Chinese paintings. Beginning with Kano Masanobu (1434–1530) in 1481, the Ashikaga appointed painters from the Kano School as official painters for their regime. The retirement compounds of Yoshimitsu and Yoshimasa (1436–1490), popularly known today as the Gold and Silver Pavilions, functioned as sites for appreciation of visual and literary culture, as well as indicators of the latest architectural trends.
Zen Buddhism enjoyed enthusiastic support from the Ashikaga, and the flourishing Zen community spawned a number of the most important painters in the history of painting in Japan. Along with landscape paintings executed in ink, masters such as Tenshō Shūbun (d. ca. 1460) painted legendary Buddhist and Daoist figures as well as shigajiku, poem-painting scrolls. The Ōnin War caused a mass exodus of painters from the capital that permanently changed the development and make-up of ateliers operating within and outside of Kyoto. Within the capital, the Kano and Tosa school painters prevailed, while outside the capital, enterprising painters such as Sesshū Tōyō (1420–1506) enhanced the stylistic spectrum with innovative works incorporating Chinese Ming dynasty (1368–1644) painting techniques. The Muromachi period also saw the arrival of the first Europeans to Japan, whose arts and culture were referred to by the term nanban, or “Southern Barbarian.”
Collcutt, Martin, “Chusei: The Medieval Age.” In A Thousand Cranes: Treasures of Japanese Art. (San Francisco and Seattle: Seattle Art Museum and Chronicle Books, 1987)
Hall, John W. and Takeshi Toyoda, eds., Japan in the Muromachi Age. (Ithaca: East Asia Program, Cornell University, 2001)
Parker, Joseph D., Zen Buddhist Landscape Arts of Early Muromachi Japan (1336-1573). (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999)
Shimizu, Yoshiaki and Wheelright, Carolyn eds., Japanese Ink Paintings from American Collections: The Muromachi Period: An Exhibition in Honor of Shujiro Shimada. (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum, 1976)
