AD 1573-1615 Momoyama

During this period the ‘three great unifiers’ of Japan – successively Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu – ended over 100 years of civil war. Each leader, by consolidating his predecessor’s efforts and defeating his rivals in battle, brought about the political unification of all the Japanese islands except Hokkaidō. The period is known as Momoyama after the site of Hideyoshi’s castle, near Kyoto.

Castles were an important part of military strategy in the struggle for control of Japan, and several of these massive stone structures survive to this day. The castles served as palatial residences as well as fortifications, and the top painters of the day were commissioned to carry out the painting schemes in their interiors. Much art was exuberant, ostentatious, and lavish in its materials, conveying the confidence and power of the warlords. There was a parallel and contrasting aesthetic, however, expressed in the austerity and simplicity of tea practice, which became popular with the powerful.

A lively trade brought an influx of goods, both from the Asian mainland and from distant Europe. The foreign items added an exotic element to the opulent decoration of domestically made work. A new class of wealthy, educated merchants, the machishû, sponsored much artistic activity and production.