I have a very large descriptive text in the Singing Bowls section of my website. This is the Link. http://www.bonsaiinformation.com/largebowl.htm and this information related mainly to the Tokugawa Shogunate because I have a large Temple bowl given by the Shogun Iyeasu in 1600 to the Horyuji Temple . |
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This gloriously coloured portrait scroll is of the famous Samurai Oda
Nobunaga (織田 信長) Oda Nobunaga (織田 信長) Oda
Nobunaga (June 23, 1534 – June 21, 1582) was the initiator of the
unification of Japan under the rule of the Shogun in the late Sixteenth
Century, a rule that ended only with the opening of Japan to the Western
world in 1868. He was also a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of
Japanese history. His opus was continued, completed and finalised by his
successors Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was the second son
of Oda Nobuhide, a deputy shugo (military governor) with land holdings
in Owari Province. Nobunaga lived a life of continuous military
conquest, eventually conquering a third of Japanese daimyo before his
death in 1582. His successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a loyal Oda supporter,
would eventually become the first man to conquer all of Japan and the
first ruler of all Japan since the Ōnin War. Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu |
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| HIDEYOSHI TOYOTOMI 1536 - 1598 This is a wonderful
portrait of Toyotomi. • June 21, 1582 – Oda Nobunaga forced to commit seppuku by Akechi Mitsuhide at Honnon-ji. • Late June 1582 – Hideyoshi quickly finishes conquest of Takamatsu Castle before news of Nobunaga’s death can get out. Toyotomi is the Family name Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the general who first united all of Japan. His wife,, Yodo-dono, was the niece of Oda Nobunaga. Hideyoshi died in 1598, the regents he had appointed to rule in Hideyori's place began jockeying amongst themselves for power. Tokugawa Iyeasu seized control in 1600, after his victory over the others at the Battle of Sekigahara. In the year 1600 Iyeasu Tokugawa gave a temple bowl to the oldest wooden structure in Japan, the Horyukji Temple in Nara. which is now part of my own collection of Japanese treasures. Another Portrait Scroll below refers to the great Tea Master Sen no Rikyu During the reign of Toyotomi Hideyoshi the Tea Ceremony became popular in Japan. Sen no Rikyu(千利休,1522-1591) is the person who established the Japanese Tea Ceremony. He was the one that made the art of making tea into a national art form.. Rikyu synthesized a unique way of life, combining the everyday aspects of living with the highest spiritual and philosophical tenets. This has been passed down to the present as the “Way of Tea.” Hideyoshi was entranced with the ceremony and gave Rikyu an estate. But that did not prevent Hideyoshi from ordering Sen no Rikyu, the great master of the Japanese tea ceremony to commit ritual suicide ("seppuku") in 1591. Notes on Sen no Rikyu are below along with a portrait Scroll.; Notes on Toyotomi Hedeyoshi are also below |
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 This painting has now been remounted onto new silks and will come with its original box created by the artist. Length is around 65 inches and the width is 20 inches The price is £375 |
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 The box is fully written up with a short history of this influential Samurai. |
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| The most significant
figure in Japanese history, as far as the Japanese are concerned, is
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598). Even his lifetime he was considered one
of the greatest of the Japanese, and he was made a Shinto deity shortly
after his death and given the title, Hokoku, or "Wealth of the Nation."
He began in the most obscure circumstances—the homeless son of a
peasant— and rose to become the complete master of Japan by 1590.
Hideyoshi had no last name when he began to serve Oda Nobunaga; by the
end of his life, he had assumed the family name, Toyotomi, or "Abundant
Provider." Oda Nobunaga had attempted to unify Japan through sheer brute force; Toyotomi furthered this endeavor by concentrating on the arts of peace and administration. Oda had done, you might say, all the dirty work and it was left to Toyotomi to forge a new administrative organization to guarantee unification. His goal was to establish a national structure which allowed various regional feudatories to remain independent and yet still cooperate among one another. He did not wish to establish a centralized government under his control, even though, by 1590, he was the undisputed master of Japan. The government that he built was founded on the old feudal system of personal loyalties rather than administrative centrality. While he pacified the country, he did not fundamentally change the Japanese way of national life. Most of the measures that Hideyoshi employed would become the basis of Tokugawa rule only a decade later and were instrumental in the long period of domestic quiet that characterized the Tokugawa period (1603-1868). Foremost among these was Hideyoshi's laws barring social mobility. He was concerned about people like himself and his former lord, Oda Nobunaga, who had risen from obscurity through the force of ambition and ruthless single-mindedness. Hideyoshi made class a permanent status for individuals and their offspring; in particular, he made the samurai ("servants"), who were the professional soldiers of Japan, into a separate class and forbade anyone from the non-samurai class to carry weapons or armor. Hideyoshi's greatest ambition, however, was a Japanese empire extending over the whole of Asia. Throughout the medieval period, the centrality of Japan became more and more an intrinsic aspect of the Japanese national identity. Nobunaga had harbored dreams of a Japanese conquest of China and Hideyoshi attempted to bring those dreams into reality. Shortly after he had unified the feudatories of Japan, he began planning his conquest of China. In 1592 and 1597, he invaded Korea and seized much territory in order to prepare a jumping-off point for the conquest of China through Korea. When he died in 1598, however, all his plans died with him. It was not until the twentieth century that the dream of a Japanese empire would again stir the Japanese to attack Korea and then China. Hideyoshi's imperial ambitions led him to neglect domestic politics throughout the 1590's. The peace he had brought to Japan had held together only out of personal loyalties to Hideyoshi. These loyalties ran deep, for Hideyoshi had amassed tremendous wealth and lavished it on the imperial court and on various lords throughout the country (hence his posthumous title, "Wealth of the Nation"). When he died, however, the loyalties that people felt for him died as well. He was enshrined in his own temple, called Toyokuni ("Wealth of the Nation") sitting above the Great Buddha he had built in Kyoto. His shrine became a prominent Shinto site, but the affection form him and his era could not hold the country together. The various feudal lords again fell into contention with one another and Hideyoshi's son lost out in the scramble for regional power. The final unification of Japan would fall to the third great hero of Japanese history, Tokugawa Ieyasu.1542-1616 Ref: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/TOKJAPAN/TOYOTOMI.HTM |
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 Hideyoshi Toyotomi as boy Painted by Shokan 1920 £195 with Box
Famous SAMURAI lord HIDEYOSHI TOYOTOMI and his vassal MASAKATSU
HACHISUKA.
Hachisuka Masakatsu (蜂須賀正勝?), also Hachisuka Koroku (1526 – July 8,
1586) was a daimyo and retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the
Azuchi-Momoyama period of Japanese history. He was the son of Hachisuka
Masatoshi.
Very little is known for certain about Hideyoshi before 1570,
when he begins to appear in surviving documents and letters. His
autobiography starts in 1577 but in it Hideyoshi spoke very little about
his past. By tradition, he was born in what is now Nakamura-ku, Nagoya |
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| Another true historical figure who is related in period to Hideyoshi Toyotomi. Sen No Rikyu; Sen no Rikyu (千利休; 1522 - April 21, 1591) is the historical figure considered to have had the most profound influence on the Japanese tea ceremony. Rikyu was also a member of the inner circles of the powerful Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. A man of simple taste, he lived a cultivated and disciplined lifestyle and defined the term wabi cha by emphasizing simple, rustic, humble qualities in the tea ceremony, which had been revolutionized by Ikkyu and his disciple Murata Shuko a century earlier. Sen no Rikyu’s first documented name was Yoshiro, later changed to Soueki. In 1585 a special tea ceremony was held to celebrate the inauguration of Toyotomi Hideyoshi as Kanpaku. On this occasion, Rikyu was given the special Buddhist name “Rikyu kojigou” by Emperor Ogimachi, and eventually became the supreme tea master. Three of the best-known schools of tea ceremony—the Urasenke, Omotesenke and Mushanokōjisenke—originated from Sen no Rikyu and his descendants via his second wife. A fourth school is called Sakaisenke. |
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 The Sen No Rikyu Scroll comes with the period box. The scroll ends are lacquered Black. A very fine scroll that has probablybeen rarely hung. In excellent condition. £275 |
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| Rikyu was born in Sakai
in 1522. His father, Tanaka Yōhei (田中与 兵衛 / 田中 與兵衞) was a wealthy
warehouse owner in the fish wholesale business, and his mother was
Tomomi Tayuki (宝心 妙樹). His childhood name, as the eldest son, was
Yoshiro (later Rikyu). Sakai is located on the edge of
Osaka Bay at the mouth of the Yamato River, which connected the
Yamato region (now Nara Prefecture) to the sea. Sakai thus became a link
between foreign trade and inland trade, and merchant citizens ran the
city. In those days it was said that the richest cities were Umi Sakai,
Riku Imai (tr. "along the sea, Sakai, inlands Imai"). The famous Zen Buddhist priest Ikkyu (一休宗純 Ikkyū Sōjun) (1394-1481) chose to live in Sakai because of its free atmosphere. Ikkyu was an eccentric, iconoclastic Japanese Zen Buddhist priest and poet. He was also one of the creators of the formal Japanese tea ceremony. Because of the close relationship between the tea ceremony and Zen Buddhism, and because of the prosperity of its citizens, Sakai became one of the main centers for the tea ceremony in Japan. In 1538, at an early age, Yoshiro began his study of tea. His first teacher was Kitamuki Dochin (北向道陳) who taught tea in the traditional style suited to the shoin (a drawing room in the traditional Japanese architecture) reception room. In 1540 Rikyu started to learn from Takeno Jo-o (武野紹鴎), who is associated with the development of the wabi aesthetic in tea ceremony, a new style featuring a small, thatched tea house. Kitamuki Dochin (北向道陳) and Takeno Jo-o（武野紹鴎）were both famous tea masters and wealthy merchants in Sakai. Takeno Jo-o developed Wabi-cha, which had been begun by Murata Shuko (村田珠光)、and initiated Rikyu in the new tradition. Rikyu, like Shuko and Jo-o, also underwent Zen training at Daitoku-ji, a temple in northwest Kyoto that had a long tradition of the tea ceremony. Thereafter, he changed his name to Sen Soueki, taking the family name of Sen from his grandfather's name, Sen-ami. It was then that Rikyu composed the poem that dates from that time: "Though many people drink tea, if you do not know the Way of Tea, tea will drink you up." The meaning is that without any spiritual training, you think you are drinking tea, but actually tea drinks you up. Rikyu synthesized a unique way of life, combining the everyday aspects of living with the highest spiritual and philosophical tenets. This has been passed down to the present as the “Way of Tea.” At the end of sixteenth century the tea ceremony was prevalent, centering on Sakai. The important merchants of Sakai were collecting prestigious tea implements and enjoying new styles of the tea ceremony. At that time Oda Nobunaga banished the Murimachi shogunate of Ashikaga Yoshimasa from Kyoto. This was the era in which Oda Nobunaga’s political and military power was unifying the nation. Nobunaga recognized the popularity of the tea ceremony, and he also began to study and participate in the tea ceremony. It is thought that around 1573 Rikyu was invited to be the Master of Tea Ceremony for Nobunaga. Nobunaga allowed his followers to do the tea ceremony, and it became a rite of the Samurai (warriors). Nobunaga’s political strategy was named ochanoyu goseido (the tea ceremony policy). Nobunaga also emphasized the collection of special tea implements; if his followers rendered distinguished services they received these valuable items as rewards. Receiving such a gift was considered as honorable as being named a feudal lord. In 1578 Rikyu’s wife, Houshin Myoujyu, died; he later married a second wife, Shushin. The Incident at Honnōji (本能寺の変Honnōji-no-hen), on June 21, 1582, resulted in the forced suicide of Oda Nobunaga at the hands of his samurai general Akechi Mitsuhide. This occurred in Honnoji, a temple in Kyoto, ending Nobunaga's quest to consolidate centralized power in Japan under his authority. After the death of Nobunaga, Rikyu became the head tea master of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the de facto successor of Nobunaga. Hideyoshi continued Nobunaga's policy and unified Japan after several years of civil war. Ostensibly in charge of tea, Rikyu wielded great influence over Hideyoshi in other matters as well. When Hideyoshi hosted a tea at the Imperial Palace in 1585, Rikyu received the Buddhist title of koji from the Emperor Ogimachi, thus establishing his prominence among the practitioners of tea in Japan. We can understand Rikyu’s position from a letter written by Otomo Sorin, who was a powerful feudal lord at that time. Sorin wrote, “Hideyoshi’s private secretary at the window was Rikyu and Hideyoshi’s official secretary at the window was the general Hidenaga (Hideyoshi’s step brother).” This means that Rikyu occupied the position closest to Hideyoshi and controlled who had access to him, while Hideyoshi’s brother-in-law only acted in an official capacity. From this we can appreciate the magnitude of the political power held by Rikyu in Hideyoshi’s administration. Around this period Rikyu moved his residence from Sakai to Kyoto, lived on the premises in front of Daitoku-ji temple and set up a tea room named Fushinan, which became the base for his tea ceremony activities and for the schools he established. In 1585 a special tea ceremony was held to celebrate the inauguration of Toyotomi Hideyoshi as Kanpaku (the regent or the chief adviser to the Emperor). Hideyoshi performed the tea ceremony for Emperor Ogimachi, with Rikyu as his on-stage assistant. On this occasion Rikyu was given the special Buddhist name “Rikyu kojigou” by Emperor Ogimachi and, in both name and reality, Rikyu became the supreme tea master. In 1587 when Hideyoshi attacked Shimazu, the feudal lord in Kyushu (southern part of Japan), Rikyu accompanied him. He held several tea ceremonies in Kyushu and worked to establish a cultural and political exchange with the wealthy and powerful business people of Kyushu, such as Kamiya Sotan and Shimai Soshitsu. Then a lavish palace called the Jurakudai or Jurakutei (聚楽第) was constructed in Kyoto by the order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Construction began in 1586, when Hideyoshi had taken the post of Kanpaku, and required 19 months for completion. The location is in present-day Kamigyō, on the site where the Imperial palace had stood during the Heian period. Rikyu was also given a residence nearby. Hideyoshi hosted a large tea ceremony party at the precinct of Kitano Tenman-gū (北野天満宮), a Shinto shrine in Kyoto. During this time, Chanoyu (tea ceremony) came into contact with Christianity. Many missionaries came to Sakai and Kyoto, where they befriended Rikyu and the other teachers of tea. Among the seven principle students of Rikyu were three devout Christians: Furuta Oribe, Takayama Ukon, and Gamou Ujisato. It was during his later years that Rikyu began to use very tiny, rustic tearooms, such as the two-tatami (Japanese mat) tearoom named Taian, which can be seen today at Myokian temple in Yamazaki, a suburb of Kyoto. This tea room has been declared a national treasure. He also developed many implements for tea ceremony, including flower containers, tea scoops, and lid rests made of bamboo, and also used everyday objects for the tea ceremony, often in novel ways. In addition, he pioneered the use of Raku tea bowls and had a preference for simple, rustic items made in Japan, rather than the expensive Chinese-made items that were fashionable at the time. Although Rikyu had once been one of Hideyoshi's closest confidants, for reasons which remain unknown, Hideyoshi ordered him to commit ritual suicide, which he did at his Jurakudai residence in Kyoto on February 28, 1591, at the age of seventy. Rikyu's grave is located at Jukoin temple in the Daitokuji compound in Kyoto; his posthumous Buddhist name is Fushin'an Rikyu Soeki Koji. Memorials for Rikyu are observed annually by many schools of Japanese tea ceremony. The Urasenke School’s memorial takes place each year on March 28. From Wikipedia |
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 Mouse and Habouki
A beautiful Sumei painting of a Mouse with a Habouki feather brush used in
the Tea Ceremony. The scroll is
quite complicated with a Waka Poem incorporated into the scroll . A truly outstanding example of Japanese brushwork. This feather duster is called a "Habouki" and is used for Ro, the sunken hearth (炉, ro) It is used for clearing the ashes from the Ro that float free and the tea which fallen onto the table. This is one of the necessaries of RO. The Habouki for Ro uses the left feather (Left largest feather). And, the Habouki for Furo (風炉) the portable brazier and uses the right feather (Right largest feather).
The Japanese tea ceremony,
also called the Way of Tea, is a Japanese cultural
activity involving the ceremonial preparation and
presentation of matcha, powdered green tea. In Japanese,
it is called chanoyu (茶の湯) or chadō (茶道; also pronounced
sadō). The manner in which it is performed, or the art
of its performance, is called temae (点前). Zen Buddhism
was a primary influence in the development of the tea
ceremony.
Tea gatherings are classified as chakai (茶会) or chaji (茶事). Chakai is a relatively simple course of hospitality that includes the service of confections, thin tea (薄茶 usucha), and perhaps a light meal (点心 tenshin). Chaji is a more formal gathering, usually with a full-course meal (kaiseki), followed by confections, thick tea (濃茶 koicha), and thin tea. A chaji may last up to four hours.
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  Another relation through marriage was the Samurai Kiyomasa Kato Kiyomasa was born in Owari Province to Katō Kiyotada. Kiyotada's wife, Ito, was a cousin of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's mother. Kiyotada died while his son (then known as Toranosuke) was still young. Soon after, Toranosuke entered service with Hideyoshi, and in 1576, at age 14, was granted a revenue of 170 koku. He fought in Hideyoshi's army at the Battle of Yamazaki, and later, at the Battle of Shizugatake. Owing to his distinguished conduct in that battle, he became known as one of the Seven Spears of Shizugatake.[1] Hideyoshi rewarded Kiyomasa with an increased revenue of 3000 koku. When Hideyoshi became the kampaku in the summer of 1585, Kiyomasa received the court title of Kazue no Kami (主計頭) and junior 5th court rank, lower grade (ju go-i no ge 従五位下). In 1586, after Higo Province was confiscated from Sassa Narimasa, he was granted 250,000 koku of land in Higo (roughly half of the province), and given Kumamoto Castle as his provincial residence. In 1592, he joined in the invasion of Korea.Kiyomasa was one of the
three senior commanders during the Seven-Year War (1592-1598) against
the Korean dynasty of Joseon. Together with Konishi Yukinaga, he
captured Seoul, Busan, and many other crucial cities. Kiyomasa was an
excellent architect of castles and fortification. During the Imjin war,
he built several Japanese style castles in Korea to better defend the
conquered lands. Ulsan castle was one of these fortresses that Kiyomasa
built, and it proved its worth when Korean-Chinese allied forces
attacked it with far superior force, yet the out-numbered Japanese
successfully defended the castle until the Japanese reinforcements
arrived, which forced the sino-korean allies to retreat. The Kato scroll dates from 1920 and has been restored with its original wooden scroll ends. The Kato scroll comes with a box. £195 |
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| KABUTO ( SAMURAI helmet ).
It has the wish that the boys will be big men. This type scroll or SAMURAI helmet for decoration is for boys festival named SHOUBU no SEKKU in May. The quality is of the painting is excellent and the size is 55.9"x 26.6" However while the scroll mounting is not too bad, I would like to remount this scroll with new silks and will do that during November. I will make a matching size box at the same time. The price will be £195. As is the price is £125
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| The Samurai
and Jirohei Cherry Tree. A traditional folk tale
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| Jorohei's Lady and
Cherry Blossom
After reading the above, you will then understand
why painters would want to depict the wife of Jirohei. This
beautiful painting was created by an unknown artist with great talent and I would suspect that
it was also painted by the same artist as above or from his school at
least. It is a painting that was once on a scroll that had deteriorated
and has now been remounted on a new silk scroll with a box made to fit
the scroll.
The price is £175. |
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Stunning Japanese scroll painting featuring samurai warrior on horseback
with retainer at his side, with a Hawk on his arm.
Kamada Gansho (1798-1859) painted this around 1830
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Emperor Jimmu (神武天皇, Jinmu-tennō); also known as: Kamuyamato Iwarebiko; given name: Wakamikenu no Mikoto or Sano no Mikoto, was the mythical founder of Japan and is the first emperor named in the traditional lists of emperors.The Imperial house of Japan traditionally based its claim to the throne on its descent from Jimmu. No firm dates can be assigned to this early emperor's life or reign, nor for the reigns of his early successors. The reign of Emperor Kimmei (509?-571), the 29th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, is the first for which contemporary historiography are able to assign verifiable dates There is a number of references to the Lost Tribe of Israel coming to Japan and much more on that can be found here: http://www.biblemysteries.com/library/tribesjapan.htm and further references are here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Japan
It may be that people of Israelite or Jewish origin reached Japan and settled there but if so they were a minority. Chances are that the descendants of any (if any) Israelites who did reach Japan are now those Japanese but the somewhat scarce archaeological evidence shows that in some respects that there may have been some elements of settlement at that long distant time. Ancient songs that are sung today are similar in both words and structure of ancient sailing or biblical era songs of the period of Abraham. There are festivals that celebrate elements of Shinto that seem to be derived fro ancient Hebraic stories. There is a mirror in the Imperial palace that dates from this ancient period that has Hebrew written on the mirror.The formal name for the Emperor "Jinmu," the first Emperor of Japan, is "Kamu-yamato-iware-biko-sumera-mikoto." Joseph Eidelberg says that it can be interpreted in Hebrew as "The king of Samaria, the noble founder of the Hebrew nation of Yahweh." This is not to mean that "Jinmu" himself is really the founder of the Hebrew nation, but the memory of the Hebrew nation might have come into the legend of the Japanese first Emperor "Jinmu." The Emblem of the Imperial House has been shown to resemble the Emblem of Herod. 79X22 with original artists box £185
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 Japanese Shrine of Emperor Recently completely restored with new silks and mounts to this beautiful painting from the 1920's With a wooden box made for this Scroll £195
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Shien painted this very beautiful example of the Manzai or Comedians. 43.8cm by 194.3cm / 17.2" by 76.4 Silk painting with silk mounts and Bone scroll ends. Including an original box. £275 Manzai (漫才) is a traditional style of stand-up comedy in Japanese culture, which usually involves two performers—a straight man (tsukkomi) and a funny man (boke)—trading jokes at great speed. Most of the jokes revolve around mutual misunderstandings, double-talk, puns and other verbal gags Originally based around a festival to welcome the New Year, manzai traces its origins back to the Heian period. The two manzai performers came with messages from the gods and this was worked into a stand-up routine, with one performer showing some sort of opposition to the word of the other. This pattern still exists in the roles of the boke and the tsukkomi. Continuing into the Edo period, the style focused increasingly on the humor aspects of stand-up, and various regions of Japan developed their own unique styles of manzai, such as Owari manzai (尾張万歳), Mikawa manzai (三河万歳), and Yamato manzai (大和万歳). With the arrival of the Meiji Period,Osaka manzai (大阪万才) began changes that would see it surpass in popularity the styles of the former period, although at the time rakugo was still considered the more popular form of entertainment.
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Painted by Scroll artist Chikuha this painting is 118 cm (about 46 inches) by 40 cm £195
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 26 SAMURAI hero MASASHIGE KUSUNOKI £125 Silk Screened and partially hand painted New additions |
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SHINRAN, Jodoshin-shu by Shunsui. This is a very colourful and well detailed
painting of a monk A perfect scroll for a Bonsai display as it is not very long |
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  SAMURAI Armour. A short scroll suitable for the smaller Tokonoma or a Bonsai or Suiseki display-with box £175 This scroll was completely remounted and is very beautiful
YOROI
KABUTO ( Samurai Armour and Helmet ). 1
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Payment can be made by Paypal to my Paypal email: craig.coussins@btinternet.com or by Credit Card: You can send the payment details as requested to my secure site: On request
Credit Card Payment:These are the secure questions that my card
processor requires.
VISA, MASTERCARD, MAESTRO and Debit Your address, phone number and Post/ Zip code I also take
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As recently as 1980, an Israeli named
