Art

             The Muromachi era encompasses the fourteenth and fifteenth century in Japan. It is a long misunderstood and neglected period of Japanese history by both foreign historians and Japanese historians (Hall, 2). It has long been regarded as culturally important but not historically and politically important (Hall, 2). Many historians felt it was a period when the Japanese attempted to emulate the past and because of this they were successful culturally (Hall, 2). Its poor standing with historians led to it being neglected in history books and to a belief that there was no source material available on the period (Hall, 3). This has changed recently and more focus has been put on new studies of the period. From a cultural perspective it has long been known that the tea ceremony, landscape gardening, no drama and monochrome painting as well as other arts came out of the period (Hall, 3). What has changed is the idea that important political things came out of the era not just important art forms.
             The Muromachi period was characterized by a failure of the central authority and fierce fighting among feudal lords (Lee, 417). The Ashikaga family had some control over the country from 1336-1490 (Grossberg, 1-2) but their power failed eventually and the country was plunged back into war. The Ashikaga family brought a synthesis between the military society and the civilian society by moving the capital from Kamakura to Kyoto (Lee, 417). The Zen and Samurai culture both took root during this period and they were mutually beneficial to each other. The Zen ideas of meditation and self discipline appealed to the Samurai and the way they lived their lives.
             International trade, especially with China, grew considerably during the Muromachi period. As the Japanese view of the world outside their country became more accurate they were more interested in trade (Souyri, 148). For a long time Japan viewed the world in three parts; Japan, China including Korea and India.