| NOTA |
(★)(The Muromachi age may well emerge in the eyes of historians as one of the most seminal periods in Japanese history. So concluded the participants in the 1973 Conference on Japan. The proceedings, as edited for this volume, reveal for the first time this new interpretation of the Muromachi age [1334-1573], which has been among the most neglected and misunderstood chapters in Japanese history. Neglect has characterized both Western and Japanese scholars, who have looked upon the period chiefly as an interlude between a more important classical era, as epitomized in the Heian period, and a more vigorous early modern age, as exemplified in the Tokugawa period. The Muromachi age, for all its cultural importance, has been regarded as a time of social confusion, political weakness, and institutional decay. As they have learned more about the Muromachi age, historians have begun to change their views. It has long been acknowledged that many of the art forms and aesthetic principles which emerged in this period became important ingredients of a distinctive Japanese cultural tradition. It was then, for instance, that the arts of ´no´ drama,´suiboku´ painting, landscape gardening, tea ceremony, and ´renga´ poetry were perfected. Now historians tell us that in the spheres of political organization and social practice as well the Muromachi age gave rise to new patterns which likewise became important elements in a distinctly Japanese political and social tradition. The 1973 Conference on Japan, which for the first time brought together Japanese and American specialists in the Muromachi age, not only reinforced this view but added to it some important new insights. One was that historians have tended to overplay the element of decay and have too often looked upon signs of institutional change as evidence of chaos. Another was the discovery of a strong ´popular element´ in Muromachi culture : whereas up to now historians have considered only the elite tradition worthy of attention, the Conference papers laid particular stress upon the evidence of vigorous new developments in popular culture, and showed that many of the mature features of this culture in the Edo period were clearly anticipated by developments in the Muromachi age.) |
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