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基本説明
明治から室町へー前著『明治天皇』で日本の近代を描いたキーンの筆は中世へ飛ぶ。武将として男として不甲斐無くも、あらゆる日本人に不朽の文化遺産を遺した唯一の将軍とその時代の精神に光を当てる。
New in paperback. Hardcover was published in 2003. From the preeminent scholar of Japan comes a masterly introduction to the medieval period, when Japan's quintessentlal culture emerged and flowered.
Full Description
Yoshimasa may have been the worst shogun ever to rule Japan. He was a failure as a soldier, incompetent at dealing with state business, and dominated by his wife. But his influence on the cultural life of Japan was unparalleled. According to Donald Keene, Yoshimasa was the only shogun to leave a lasting heritage for the entire Japanese people. 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.
Contents
Chronology Shoguns of the Ashikaga Family Introduction Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion Notes Bibliography Index
