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Home › Forums › Short Online Seminars › Objects and Ritual in Japanese History, Fall 2021 › Session 3 - June 30
Ying Yu.
cgaoSocial and Cultural Rituals and the Maintenance of Warrior Society
Lecture 1
Lecture 2
Required Assignments and Readings
David MilliansI think I'm finally starting to "get" the importance of the combination of objects and rituals in maintaining a community or a society. I'm struck by the vivid importance of everything from swords to tea in developing relationships and ideals for the samurai elite during this period. It's a novel way of exploring and intepreting this history and culture, and I'm excited to explore ways to share this with my students through examples and parallels in their own lives and society.
Thomas PinedaI share your excitement about introducing these artifacts to students as art pieces. The ‘coolness’ factor of swords and samurai is an easy way to get them engaged, but looking at the armor resources from the MET and LACMA provides so much more detail and personal taste that ends up involved in the designs. I never really noticed the symbolism and the thoughtfulness that went into them, on top of the construction and materials. In a sense, it reminds of sport jerseys, and how colors, symbols and patterns can carry specific meaning. I’ve gotten to design jerseys with some of the teams I’ve played on and deliberated what colors and symbols to include. Noticing the psychological effect that wearing a particular garment has for just sports, I’m sure that effect was amplified when it came to samurai choosing their armor and swords for battle.
Shuang YangGrowing up in Chinese culture, I think I have deep understanding of the importance of tea. In this lecture I learn the connection between tea ceremony and the maintenance of samurai society in Japanese history which is fascinating. In the era of all the cruelty in the war, this elegant peaceful tea ceremony developed. It reminds me of the extreme contrast symbols of Japanese culture: The Chrysanthemum and the Sword. The same hand that takes enemy’s heads and does Seppuku would hold beautiful teacups and participate in tea ceremony. I think the focus on designing of the tearoom and the art of the procedure is one way to deal with the chaos in life. There is a Japanese movie called Every Day a Good Day that tells a story about a girl learning cha-no-yu from her early twenties and continued for decades. It helped her going through the chaos and uncertainty in her life with this choreographed practice. This is an important cultural inheritance. I enjoyed the movie and learnt a lot about Japanese tea ceremony.
Lou KindschiThomas, I appreciate your comment on the the significance of sports apparel design. With the changing rules of college athletes and compensation some athletes are already designing their own personal logo for marketing. I am wondering in what ways Samurai chose personal expression and in what ways they demonstrated allegiance to specific warrior "groups".
Lou KindschiThank you for this recommendation. It would serve as an effective teaching tool for students.
Lou KindschiI found the scroll painting of Tokugawa Ieyasu compelling in the article "The Empire of Things: Tokkugawa Ieyasu's Material Legacy and Cultural Profile. Using this painting as an anchor to discuss the setting, the objects, and even the disposition of Ieyasu was effective for this visual learner. As a teaching tool it would serve as an effective hook to a lesson on significant Japanese objects or as a prompt for a summative essay. Although I have seen Japanese alcoves before I did not appreciate the setting or architecture as I do now. In thinking of the expression "form follows function" I would characterize the alcove setting as "form precedes function".
Thomas PinedaThat's a great question, I hope Morgan mentions something about it today, or we can ask. But I did find that an interesting contrast he mentioned in the first video lecture- that samurai broke from the collectivist stereotype often applied to East Asian cultures. I wonder if it had anything to do with distinguishing yourself from other samurai in order to achieve higher status? Also, I wonder in what other realms individualism was prominent in this time, I guess having your own incense or scent in court could be an example?
Deirdre HarrisI enjoyed reading the essay Dr. Pitelka wrote about Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) which offers so many insights into Samurai life and cultural rituals in Japanese history. Professor Pitelka shares with us not only the story of his life, but also explains the many objects that were part of the life of Ieyasu and his legacy. This great man cherished swords, chinese ceramics and falcons most of all, but he was also an educated man who left behind a family, despite being torn apart from his own as a young child. Dr. Pitelka tells us that Ieyasu had over 1,000 swords upon his death, that he had either received as gifts in ceremonies, that exchanged gifts after battles as rituals, or had collected for various reasons. He mentions that these gift exchange rituals controlled violence and played a vital role in keeping the peace between warriors and also built stronger relationships between those already existing ones.
As a child he was given away to another group to be raised, which was not unusual for boys selected for this life. He was held hostage by the new group, and was befriended by a man who shared his interest of falconry and birds with the young Ieyasu. He learned of his real father's death 2 years later, and by age 13, went through a Ceremony of Manhood. He eventually emerged as the strongest Warlord in Japan aftere the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1603.
He was a well educated man and Professor Pitelka lists his 6 favorite books, (which only included 2 Japanese titles) mostly Chinese. He loved to spend much of his later life with his Falcons, (which also were objects to give and receive as gifts in ceremonies), to the point that it was more of an obsession. He was even doing it when he became ill, and died shortly thereafter at the age of 75 in 1616.
I enjoyed learning about this man's life and legacy, and the many rituals and ceremonies that we are learning about here played an important role in his life. From sword exchanges and gifts, to insense, tea ceremonies, falconry, works of art, the life of a warrior was definitely an interesting one. To learn about the greatest one who probably ever lived, Ieyasu, was my true pleasure. Thank you Dr. Pitelka for the insight into history in such a personal way, that we come to care for this man, and all he went through in his life.
I can think of many ways I can incorporate this into my teaching, using the angle of ceremonies, rituals, and the objects of them, to learning about the meaning of the objects, such as how pine trees equate themselves with immortality. Students would be very interested in the head-taking ceremonies, because of the nature of bloodiness involved, showing how warriors wanted to prove they were effective in battle. Thank you for this session's most interesting information about Japan.
Miguel DiazVideo Lecture 2
I find it really fascinating that the traditional homes of high-ranking samurai had ornamental alcoves, or tokonoma, which were decorated with scrolls and flowers arrangements indicating the seasons and/or other symbolic representations.
My perception has always been that warrior classes, in all societies, engage in displays of alpha male discussions and shows of machismo, even when attending or hosting social gatherings.
I can’t picture samurai taking part in elaborate tea drinking ceremonies, much less appreciating flower arrangements.
I am more inclined to believe that samurai would get together, drink sake, and compare notes on the taking of the heads of rival commanders.
I'd like to know if the rituals - involving flowers, tea, scrolls - were reserved for the elites only, or if common samurai also engaged in such practices.
clay dubeMorgan introduced this wonderful scene from Rikyu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqyvY9UDoNM (the clip seems to have lived on Tudou, the Chinese video site, before making it to YouTube).
I was hoping that Rikyu (1989, dir.: Hiroshi Teshigahara) would be available from a streaming service, but it doesn't seem to be offered by the major US services. It is available for $12-15 plus shipping/handling from various sites (for example: http://www.vendio.com/stores/STUFFYOUWANTED/item/rikyu ).
Thomas PinedaI definitely agree with you, the biography about Tokugawa Ieyasu was interesting and very informative for me, particularly having very little background knowledge about him. I thought the approach of explaining his life using one object, the posthumous painting, was a great exercise in how to deep dive into a historical art piece and explain each of the elements and their relationship to the subject.
I also think Morgan mentioned another fun researching and writing activity for students, of choosing a historical artifact and telling its biography. It reminds me a of similar activity where I’ve had students write an autobiography, except in science with a rock going through the rock cycle. This object rich culture has a lot of options to choose from, it makes me wish I taught history instead of Math & Science.
Katharine DavisA fun activity in a art class (or an art activity in ANY class) could be to have the students mimic a portrait like this and have them select a few special items to surround themselves with, items that either showed their status or what was important to them or important skills/acheivements they would want represented!
Katharine DavisBack in 2014 I had the good fortunte to visit an exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) called "Samurai: Beyond the Sword," which along with samurai armor and swords, featured objects that had been fashioned from swords. It was really a fascinating exihibit! I happened to find this Flickr page with some "media preview" photos (https://flickr.com/photos/sflag/albums/72157641979222175/) and I also found an article/review about the event (https://www.toledoblade.com/A-E/Art/2014/03/16/Samurai-Beyond-the-Sword-exhibit-takes-over-the-Detroit-Institute-of-Arts.html) -- unfortunately the DIA doesn't seem to have info on it's own website. Apparently this exhibit was based off another called "Leathal Beauty," so perhaps it's still touring around in some form?
In the same vein as art museums, there is a small "Samurai Museum" in Shinjuku, Tokyo if anyone plans to visit soon! (https://www.samuraimuseum.jp/en/index.html) It wasn't extraordinary, but many of the pieces are authentic (if I remember correctly), and our guide was wonderfully personable and my friends (who speak no Japanese) and I had a great time visiting. If you are in Tokyo/Shinjuku for a few days and/or you are a big samurai fan, I think it's worth a visit.
Finally... our discussion during the Zoom session tonight reminded me of a short animated film I saw at the DIA in 2013/2014. In talking about how some objects are so revered... that they are given names... and someone in the chat even mentioned animisim in Japanese culture... the short film kind of dealt with this concept, I think. It is called 「九十九」(kyuu-jyuu-kyuu), which means "99" in Japanese -- although the English title was changed to "Possessions" (::eyeroll::). It is the story of a man who comes across some very old objects that have been abandoned and have developed resentful spirits because of their misuse. It was really fascinating! As it came to my mind during our sessio today, I started looking around online... and I *FINALLY* found it online! (There are English subtitles for anyone who does not speak Japanese.) It's only about 13 minutes long (and was up for "Best Animated Short" for the Academy Awards!) so I hope you take a moment to enjoy it!
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3rr0av
Lou KindschiThank you Katherine for posting this film. It is thought provoking and I think it would serve to ignite interesting comments in a classroom.