Abstract
Rule by regional warlords continued in Japan from the preceding Kamakura period. The imperial family was weak, and, once restored to power after the Kamakura shogunate fell in 1333, immediately entered disputes about the lineage. Four clans governed with varying degrees of reach: Ashikaga (r. 1338–1573); Oda Nobunaga (r. 1573–82); Toyotomi (r. 1582–1603); and Tokugawa (r. 1603–1868). The Ashikaga shogunate was relatively weak against the daimyo (regional vassals), who retained autonomous power and fought to expand their territories. Oda Nobunaga, after driving the Ashikaga clan out, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, after Oda’s death, increased the areas of subordination. It was, however, Tokugawa Ieyasu who secured supremacy over the entire land in 1603, and the resulting Tokugawa shogunate maintained long period of peace, governing from Edo (present-day Tokyo) rather than Kyoto. Under their rule, Japan adopted a policy of isolation against foreign nations, lasting more than 200 years, until abandoned in 1854 through the treaty signed with the USA. The Edo period ended with the Meiji Restoration in 1868, when the last of the Tokugawa shoguns surrendered power to the imperial court. The political autonomy of daimyo during the Ashikaga shogunate, in the Muromachi period, promoted the various regional economies of Japan. Cities and markets developed, and new types of agriculture and manufacturing were established. These developments continued under subsequent rulers, then into the Tokugawa shogunate from the early seventeenth century. In addition, contacts were now established with Western European countries through Jesuit missionaries as well as Portuguese and Spanish, then Dutch, traders. New forms of art and literature and entertainment were promoted, including tea drinking, which the ruling and merchant classes greatly enjoyed, as well as painting, which was applied to residential interiors. The Tokugawa shogunate introduced other innovative systems, including a network of roads. Towns were developed along these roads, as well as around important facilities such as religious institutions, castles and ports, with the capital city of Edo growing to around 1 million people by the early eighteenth century. But famines and economic difficulties made conditions fraught, with frequent unrest and riots. The Tokugawa government was considerably weakened when Commodore Perry’s US fleet arrived in 1853, forcing Japan to open up to foreign influence. Throughout this period, ruling warlords and regional vassals (daimyo) emulated the lifestyle of the emperor and aristocrats. Their homes were hence modelled after palaces and manors of the shinden style, yet with some differences, being smaller and more asymmetrical. The shoin style developed as the approach for warlords’ residences, followed by the more relaxed sukiya style. Many architectural elements today considered typically Japanese date from the shoin and sukiya styles, including tatami mat floors, shoji and fusuma sliding screens as doors/partitions to divide interior spaces, and tokonoma alcoves. A variety of building styles existed for commoners’ dwellings, known as minka, reflecting Japan’s diverse geographical and climatic conditions and responding to local types of agriculture and manufacture. Provincial towns flourished along the official roads network connecting Edo to each region, and around the facilities including ports, Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and so on. Styles for temples and shrines also evolved, adopting new construction methods related to new Buddhist sects or, for shrines, borrowing forms from temples. Buddhist monks who had studied on the Chinese mainland aided these developments, as did carpenters who transmitted novel forms and techniques to subsequent buildings. Supported by ruling warlords, and with nationwide peace finally arriving under the Tokugawa shogunate, the entertainment industry flourished, including the wabi tea ceremony and Noh and Kabuki theatres, with buildings now designed for these specific purposes.