Lecture 16: Warring States

Warring States: Order and Disorder

Gekokujô and Daimyô

Technology: Castles, Guns and Mobilization

International Trade

Tea Ceremony

Characteristics of the Warring States Era (late 15th-mid 16th c.)

Decentralized rule

Rule by court or shogunate largely replaced with rule by territorially based daimyô

End of the shôen

Gekokujô (Lower Overcoming the Higher)

Strategic but not necessarily constant warfare

Extensive international relations

Gekokujô (Lower Overcoming the Higher)

Inability of established elites to maintain control => local leaders defy court & shogunate

Increased ability of people from lower classes to determine own course of life

Ikki: non-elite military organizations bound by "agreement" not blood or vassalage

Diverse Origins of Daimyô

Shugo-daimyô: parlayed power as shugo to become major warlord

Local delegate or vassal of shugo who rejected shugo authority to seize local power

Warrior or warrior-farmer who seized local power

Warring States Daimyô

Taking over matters of governance from shogunate to wield territorial authority

Not simply a matter of suppressing all opposition by military means: carrot as well as stick in terms of governing policy

Key relations between daimyô and vassals

Warring States Technology: Castles

Castles before the mid-16th c. were basically mountain-top fortresses

Rapid expansion of castle construction from mid-16th c. to mid-17th c. symbolic of development of multiple centers of governing power during Warring States

Castle Defense

Siege became an increasingly major element of warfare from the 14th c.

Basic attack: starve or burn the defenders out

Innovation in defensive features

Castles: Expressions of Power

Symbolic importance of height and appearance of central keep

Residence of the territorial lord

Rituals and performances on site (mini-"court")

Physical site of civil administration

Not built in remote areas, but central sites (must be seen to function as symbol)

Castle Towns (Jôkamachi)

Functioned like regional capitals

Artisans and merchants given incentives to settle in towns

Warring States Technology: Guns

1543 Portuguese sold guns to Lord of Tanegashima who gave them to swordsmith to copy

By mid-16th c., mastered gun production techniques, but the resources and skills not evenly distributed

Daimyô struggled over control of gun producing regions

Gun advantage : don't need much training or strength to handle

Warring States Mobilization

Daimyô armies regularly numbered in 10,000s

Commoners became mobilized in great numbers, sometimes 3:1 for commoners to samurai

Planning for rapid movement of large forces: widening and repairing strategic roads

Planning for supply of large forces:

Kamakura-Muromachi Economic Trends

Cash economy

Urbanization

Periodic official countermeasures v. monetarization

International trade

International Trade

Informal trade with China under Mongol rule resumed in late 13th c.

Formal trade relations from 1325

14th c. pirates (wakô) raiding coastal Asia

1404 formal commercial treaty w/Ming

Trade relations w/Korea and Ryûkyûs

Europeans into the Mix: Late 16th c. European Trade in Asia

Portuguese develop triangle trade

Spaniards trade from Mexico to Manila to Japan

Christianity in Warring States

Jesuits followed Francis Xavier after 1549

Conversion of small number of daimyô, who ordered their vassals to follow suit

Embraced or tolerated by daimyô who desired expanded trade

Evangelized by trying to find metaphors and explanations suitable to the Japanese

Became involved in political matters

Jesuit monopoly broken by Spanish Franciscans

Later suppressed for destabilizing influence

Tea and Politics

Tea as conspicuous consumption

Tea as discipline

Tea masters as cultural and political advisors

Tea ceremony as new kind of cultural space for the meeting of various social classes

Development

15th c., tea parties held by elites while admiring Chinese treasures

16th c., tea parties appropriated by other groups (wealthy merchants & artisans, warriors, priests)

During the Warring States era, transformed into a performance art

Spontaneity and erudition (can only break rules when know them)

Development of aesthetic value system centered on the ceremonial actions and space in combination with the objects

Sen no Rikyû (1522-1591)

Merchant family in Sakai

Tea ceremony big part of merchant cultural life of such urban centers

Known as a tea man by his 20s

Invited by various daimyô for instruction in tea

Nobunaga takes Sakai, among his demands are that famous tea implements be turned over to him

3 Sakai tea masters incl. Rikyû came to serve Nobunaga

Hideyoshi took control after death of Nobunaga in 1582, took over Nobunaga tea implement collection and masters as well

1585 Rikyû supervised preparation of tea by Hideyoshi for the emperor

Rikyû became confidante of Hideyoshi, had to go through him to speak to Hideyoshi

Political statement of 800-person tea party held by Hideyoshi in 1587

Rikyû’s forced suicide in 1591

A Search for Order

Political disorder and order

Smaller damiyo being conquered or absorbed

Strategic alliances of major daimyo to keep neighbors in check

End of 16th century unification by the big three

Cultural disorder and order

Tea origins in gekokujô spirit of Warring States

Tension between control and spontaneity

Increasingly regulated

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Lecture 16: Warring States