The late medieval period of Japanese history
(1336–1572) is generally called the Muromachi
age, named after the district of Kyoto where the
seat of power lay. The political center of Japan
shifted from Kamakura back to Kyoto as a new
military government, the Ashikaga shogunate,
gained power and ruled Japan for more than 200
years. Unlike their predecessors during the KAMAKURA PERIOD, the Ashikaga shoguns were never
able to extend their power to the whole country.
But the period saw significant aesthetic accomplishments, the most important of which was the
development of N¯ O DRAMA.
The era began in turmoil. The emperor GoDaigo was briefly successful in restoring the old
imperial power by overthrowing the Kamakura
government in 1334 in a period called the Kemmu
restoration. But he was not able to gain the support
of the wealthy landowners, and the administrative
machinery of the imperial government was not capable of maintaining him in power. The warrior
Ashikaga Takauji, who at first supported the new
emperor, turned against Go-Daigo and drove him
from the capital in 1336. A new emperor was appointed, clearly subordinate to Takauji, who made
himself shogun in 1338, while Go-Daigo set up a
rival imperial court at Yoshino in the south. For
more that 50 years, the two imperial courts were
at odds, the northern court generally having the
upper hand, though on several occasions the
southern emperor was able to retake Kyoto for
brief periods. Under the third shogun, Ashikaga
Yoshimutsu (r. 1363–94), the southern court was
finally eliminated and a single imperial succession
restored. Yoshimutsu solidified the power of the
shogunate, and was able to establish power over
all the central provinces, though the outer regions
remained outside his control. Yoshimutsu established trade with China, made improvements in
agriculture that increased domestic production,
and improved the economy. He also became a
powerful and generous patron of the arts.
In the outer provinces, however, local warlords
known as daimyo held sway. Their power increased
over the years while the shogunate’s power waned,
and rivalries between the warlords eventually culminated in the Onin War (1467–77), during which ¯
Kyoto was destroyed, the shogunate defeated, and
the nation forced into a century and a half of civil
war called the Sengoku (Age of the country at war),
which lasted until the second half of the 16th century. Portuguese traders arrived in 1542, and the
Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier in 1549. Over the
objections of the Buddhist establishment, many of
the warlords welcomed the visitors, anticipating an
economic trade boom with the West. Meanwhile
Oda Nobunaga, most powerful of the warlords,
captured Kyoto in 1568 and overthrew what was
left of the Muromachi government.
Despite the turbulence of the times, Japanese
literature flourished during the Muromachi period. One important form of literature was the war
chronicle, the most influential of which was The
Taiheiki (Record of great peace), a 40-book chronicle narrating the events of the Kemmu Restoration and its aftermath, a 50-year period. Written
in a combination of Japanese and Chinese, it is famous for its depiction of heroes who supported
the imperial cause. The text seems to have been
influenced significantly by The TALE OF THE HEIKE.
Another significant war tale from this period is the
Meitokuki, telling of the rebellion of the powerful
Yamana family against the Ashikaga shogunate in
1391. Though the author, most likely a priest, is
clearly a partisan of the shogun, the most memorable parts of the text are those that describe the
deaths of the Yamana warriors.
More important than the war chronicles, drama
flourished during the Muromachi period.
Through the direct patronage of the Ashikaga
shoguns, the N¯ O drama reached its period of maturity under its most important and innovative
playwright and actor, ZEAMI (1363–1443). Applying the aesthetic principles first formulated in
HEIAN court poetry to the creation of drama,
Zeami also changed the subject matter of N¯ O plays
from stories of the gods associated with local
shrines around Kyoto to stories drawn from classical literature of Heian Japan, like the TALE OF
GENJI. He also drew heavily on the more recent Tale
of the Heike, a story of warriors that appealed to
the new samurai culture of the Ashikaga military
elite. Zeami developed the warrior play, whose
protagonist was the spirit of a warrior whose resentment at his traumatic death prevented him
from detaching himself from this world. The most
popular of Zeami’s warrior plays was Atsumori,
concerning the young Heike warrior killed in the
ninth chapter of the Tale of the Heike.
Another form of drama, the ky¯ ogen, or comic
drama, also became popular in the Muromachi period. With the turmoil in the capital, cultured aristocrats fled to the provinces, and as a result, later
medieval literature shows a new interest in life
among common people. This may explain the relationship of N¯ O drama with ky¯ ogen, whose plays
were performed alongside the N¯ O drama and in
the same venue. In ky¯ ogen plays, the common people, such as servants, are able to overcome obstacles for happy endings.
The warrior elite also sponsored a new type of
poetry called renga, or “linked poetry,” made up of
sequences of stanzas in the form of the 31-syllable tanka poems. The sequences were of varying
length, and might be composed by one, two, or
three poets or more. Various complex rules governed the composition of such poems, including
conventions of language and rhythm, and the classification of stanzas by topics. The most famous
renga poet was S¯ ogi (1421–1502), who came from
an obscure background and who lived through
the Onin War to achieve great reputation and in- ¯
fluence as the greatest poet of his times.
Another type of literature characteristic of
Muromachi Japan was what has been called “outsiders’ literature.” Members of the establishment,
whether aristocrats or Buddhist priests, might
leave the court or the capital (either by choice or
necessity) for a more isolated place, and may ultimately write their own observations as “outsiders.”
One of the earliest of these is Yoshida KENKO ¯ (ca.
1283–ca. 1350), whose Essays in Idleness include
243 fragments on various subjects, pertaining to,
as he says “trivial things that came into my head.”
Another “outsider” was the Zen Buddhist priest
Ikky¯ u (1394–1481), whose Ky¯ ounsh¯ u (Mad cloud
collection) consists of more than 1,000 poems
written in Chinese. His poems are composed in
four lines, with seven words per line, and are of
three types: poems of Zen philosophy; poems decrying the depravity of contemporary times; and
love poems, apparently addressed to Ikky¯ u’s blind
female attendant.
Another literary trend in Chinese-language poetry during the Muromachi age was the rise of
Gozan literature. Gozan means “Five Temples”
(there were five Buddhist temples each in Kyoto and
in Kamakura), and literature written by Zen
or monks associated with those temples became
common late in the Kamakura period and continued into the Muromachi age. This literature might
be in Japanese, Chinese, or a combination. By the
later Muromachi period, Gozan poetry began to include the theme of love. No women were allowed in
the Zen temples of Muromachi Japan, and some recent scholars have been interested in the theme of
homosexual love in poets like Shinden Sh¯ oban
(1380–1452), T¯osh¯ o Sh¯ ugen (fl. ca. 1460), and
San’eki Eiin (fl. ca. 1520)—a theme that seems to
have influenced the later Japanese warrior culture.
The Muromachi period produced a great deal
of artistic innovation in poetry, drama, and prose.
There was still a strong Buddhist influence on the
literature, and a courtly influence as well, with
Heian aesthetics clearly governing such developments as N¯ O drama. At the same time, the tastes
and influence of the military elite as well as those
outside the establishment, including influences
from popular entertainment, began to have some
impact during this era.
Bibliography
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Japanese N¯ o Dramas. Edited and translated by Royall
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the Man-y¯ oshu to Modern Times. New abridged
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Keene, Donald. Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century. Vol. 1 of History of Japanese Literature. New
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