Momoyama Period (1573–1615)

Momoyama Period (1573–1615)

 

 

 Wine container, Momoyama period (1573–1615), ca. 1596–1600
Japan
Lacquered wood

 

This lacquered sake container (choshi) exemplifies the luxurious utensils, paintings, and military accoutrements that filled the grand residences of the Momoyama period. Indeed, this vessel may have been used by the powerful and flamboyant general Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–1598), who unified Japan in the 1590s. Typical of Kodaiji-style lacquers, the container is exquisitely made but relatively simple, in contrast with other more classic lacquer items made by the same workshop.

The strong design of this container consists of two patterns diagonally bisected by zigzag lines; one design is set against a sprinkled gold ground and the other is on solid black. The stunning contrast of the two patterns—totally different in color, rhythm, and motif—was much favored around 1600 by artists working not only in lacquer but also in ceramics and textiles.

 

 

Helmet (Zukinnari Kabuto), 16th century; Momoyama period
Japanese
Lacquered iron

 

The helmet is shaped like a hat (zukinnari) worn by old men. The ornament at the front is that of the Buddhist guardian figure Fudo Myo-o.

 

 

Shoin Room

 

The grand Momoyama spirit is perpetuated in this formal Japanese reception room. Modeled on the principal room at the Kangaku-in, a guest residence built in 1600 at the onjoji temple near Lake Biwa outside Kyoto, this Shoin-style room was built in 1985 by Japanese craftsmen using materials and techniques authentic to the Momoyama period (1573–1615), under the exacting supervision of Kakichi Suzuki, an eminent architectural historian who was then an official of the Japanese Cultural Agency. The refined proportions of this room, with its large alcove (tokonoma), flooring of grass mats (tatami), and decorated sliding doors (fusuma) for walls, marked the culmination of two centuries of developments in interior architecture.

The shoin (literally, "study") was originally part of a reading room in a Zen monastery fitted with shelves and an alcove near a window. With the increased appreciation and collection of Chinese paintings and utensils during the Muromachi period (1392–1573), the alcove was enlarged and devoted to the display of works of art and the tokonoma was developed to constitute an essential feature of Japanese formal rooms. This room's large size, with its capacious tokonoma filling one wall and its gold-leafed doors defining others, is characteristic of the grand rooms of the Momoyama era in temples and aristocratic mansions, as well as in the ostentatious castles of the newly risen warlords.

 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art