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.
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