Higashiyama culture is the culture of the Higashiyama period of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the eighth Muromachi shogun, in the later fifteenth century, in which the foundations of shoin tea, ink painting, linked verse, and noh were established. In tea history it is the period in which shoin tea was consolidated.
Development
After the Onin War left Kyoto devastated, Yoshimasa withdrew to Ginkaku-ji (Jisho-ji) and formed a cultural salon there. The doboshu — Noami, Geiami, and Soami — systematised shoin display and tea practice, bringing the taste for imported Chinese objects to its height.
Legacy
Utensils of this period, the Higashiyama gomotsu, rank as the highest class of celebrated objects and survive to the present. This is the layer of the tradition that wabi tea was formed against, and the objects themselves are still used at the most formal gatherings.
Sources
- 東山文化（デジタル大辞泉 / 精選版 日本国語大辞典） / コトバンク
Supports: 東山文化が「東山時代の文化。公家文化・武家文化に禅宗文化の融合したもので、庭園・書院造り・華道・茶道・水墨画・能・連歌など各分野の発達が目覚ましく、近世文化の源流をなす」ものであること。室町時代中期、足利義政を中心に形成されたこと
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Related terms
- Kundaikan SochokiKundaikan Sochoki
The Muromachi manual of connoisseurship and room display that records the norms of shoin tea.
- Karamono torai (arrival of Chinese utensils)karamono torai
The importation of Chinese tea utensils that sustained the Higashiyama taste, peaking in the Muromachi period.
- SoamiSoami
Noami's grandson (d. 1525), the last of three generations of doboshu, who completed the shoin tea system.
- NoamiNoami
The doboshu (1397–1471) who served Yoshimasa and began the codification of shoin display and tea.