A Short Period with a Strong Look
The Momoyama period is a name for a brief stretch at the end of the sixteenth century and the very beginning of the seventeenth, between the decades of civil war and the long peace of the Edo period. The name comes from the site of a castle built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the military leaders who reunified the country, in the hills south of Kyoto. Some scholars prefer the term Azuchi-Momoyama, adding the name of the castle of his predecessor Oda Nobunaga. The dates of the period vary slightly between sources, and it is best treated as a convenient label for a recognizable style, not a precise era.
Why Display Mattered
After a long period of warfare, the leaders who gained control of much of the country wanted to show their authority. Large castles with tall keeps stood as symbols of power, and their interiors were designed to impress visitors. Interiors of big halls were often dim, and surfaces covered in gold leaf reflected whatever light entered, making the rooms glow. Many of the castles themselves have not survived fires, wars and later demolition, so much of what is known comes from surviving paintings, fragments and records.
Gold-Leaf Painting
Painting for these spaces was done on sliding doors and folding screens, the main surfaces in a large hall. Artists of the Kano school, the leading workshop of the time, developed a monumental style with big, simplified forms, strong outlines and backgrounds of gold leaf, often with clouds of gold dividing parts of the scene. Subjects included pine trees, birds, flowers, tigers and dragons, as well as scenes from Chinese history, which were intended to convey the owner’s strength and culture. The Kano school is usually seen as reaching one of its high points in this period. Rival studios also produced bold work, and some painters worked on a vast scale.
Another category of painting showed everyday life in Kyoto and its surroundings, with crowds of people in the streets, at festivals and in entertainment quarters, often on folding screens. They give a sense of a livelier, more open urban world. Screens like these also hint at the later popular culture of the Edo townspeople.
Contact with Foreigners
The late sixteenth century saw the arrival of Portuguese traders and missionaries. Painters sometimes depicted the foreign visitors, with their large ships and unfamiliar clothes, on screens that are now called nanban screens, from a word meaning “southern barbarians” that reflects the viewpoint of the time. The presence of Europeans introduced new goods and ideas, though the period also saw increasing suspicion of Christianity and later restrictions. This is an example of the openness and unease that coexisted in these decades.
Bold Tea Taste
Alongside the glitter, tea practice flourished among the military and merchant elite. Leaders held tea gatherings and collected prized utensils, and a famous master named Sen no Rikyu served Hideyoshi and is associated with a taste for restraint. His approach valued small, dark rooms, simple materials and utensils with a hand-shaped, even irregular, look. Bowls made for him by a tile maker are commonly described as the origin of what became raku ware, a hand-built, low-fired style. Raku and Hagi remain among the best-known tea wares today.
This created a notable contrast. One side was gold, scale and display; the other, a narrow, plain tea hut. Yet both were ways of expressing taste and status, and the same patrons often took part in each. The tension between them helped sharpen ideas that later became known as wabi-sabi, though the tea masters’ own vocabulary was different and their aims varied. Tea in this period was also political, because inviting people to gatherings and gifting valued objects built relationships. A famous story that Rikyu was ordered to end his life by Hideyoshi is well known, though the reasons are debated by historians.
Ceramics Beyond Tea
Potters in western Japan produced vigorous work. Around the Mino region, wares with bold painted designs and deliberate distortion became popular, and the Shino and Oribe looks of Mino ware took shape in this era. Oribe ware, named for a tea master and warrior, is known for its green glaze and asymmetrical shapes, which many people find lively and playful. In addition, Korean potters brought to Japan after military campaigns in Korea influenced kilns in Kyushu and elsewhere; this is part of the background to Arita porcelain and to Hagi ware. The campaigns themselves caused great suffering, and the history of these potters is a mixed one.
Clothing and Decoration
Dress also became more colorful and varied, with bold patterns on textiles and complex techniques of embroidery, gold leaf and tie-dyeing used for kimono. Lacquer decorated in gold, often called maki-e, was also popular and was used for furniture and boxes, including items made for export. Such work reflects the same appetite for display seen in painting.
Why the Period Matters
The Momoyama period is often remembered as a time of flamboyant confidence, though that picture is partial. The same years saw warfare, harsh rule and social upheaval. In art, though, it set directions that the next century would follow: the gold-ground decorative tradition influenced the later Rinpa style, and the tea culture of the time shaped much of what people now call the Japanese tea ceremony. A reader looking at a gold screen and a plain tea bowl side by side may find it surprising that they come from the same decades, and that is part of their interest.