MUROMACHI PERIOD 室町時代　 1392-1568

•  Ashikaga Shogunate 足利幕府

•  Capital moved back to Kyoto from Kamakura

•  Ties reestablished with Ming-dynasty China after being severed with the previous Yuan dynasty

Shogunate-sponsored architecture

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's 足利義満 Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji 金閣寺 ; also called Rokuonji 鹿苑寺), Kyoto. Rebuilt 1964 after the original of the 1390s. [Mason, fig. 262]

Silver Pavilion (Ginkakuji 銀閣寺 ; also called Higashiyama Jishôji 東山慈照寺) Kyoto.   1482.   Established by Ashikaga Yoshimasa 足利義政 , the eighth Muromachi Shogun, grandson of Yoshimitsu. [Mason, fig. 263]

            Tôgudô tea room 東求堂 at the Silver Pavilion [Mason, figs. 266-68]

Tea Ceremony (chanoyu 茶の湯 )

Sen no Rikyu (1522-91).   Rikyu, undoubtedly the most famous tea master, served under the two shogun Nobunaga and Hideyoshi.   He codified the essential rituals of the tea ceremony.

Six Old Kilns :   The earliest active ceramic producing areas in Japan which produced high-fired stonewares for daily use were:   Seto, Tokoname, Echizen, Shigaraki, Tamba and Bizen.   They were all originally unglazed wares with the exception of Seto which featured a transparent greenish brown glaze.  

•  Seto ware .   Seto, one of the “Six Old Kilns,” is located in Aichi prefecture.   It is the oldest ceramic center in Japan, and produced Japan's first glazed stoneware during the Kamakura period.   The shape and decoration are unmistakably in imitation of Chinese Song-dynasty celadon, though the materials are coarser and the techniques inferior.   Beautiful incised or carved designs, usually floral, decorate the ware. (fig. 208)

•  Shigaraki ware .   Thick-walled stoneware produced at least since the Kamakura era in Shiga prefecture.   Bits of feldspar embedded in the body are a distinctive feature of the ware.   Example of storage jar.   [Mason, fig. 209]

•  Bizen ware .   A fine-textured, red-boded stoneware from modern Okayama prefecture.   Like the other wares of the “Six Old Kilns,” there wares were originally produced for domestic use.   As the tea masters turned to these wares after the 15 th century, however, the kilns produced quantities of tea wares.   Old Bizen was unglazed, except for occasional accidental ash deposits which formed spots or smears of gloss.

•  Raku ware .   Literally, “comfort” or “pleasure” ware.   A type of ceramic ware that is lead-glazed and fired at low temperatures and that traditionally is hand formed. Example of tea bowl by Sasaki Chojiro.   [Mason, fig. 287-8]