William Coaldrake, œNijÅ Castle and the Psychology of Architectural Intimidation, Architecture and Authority in Japan (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 138-162.
“ Karen Gerhart, The Eyes of Power: Art and Early Tokugawa Authority, (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999), œIntroduction, pp. ix-xiv (finishing the paragraph at the top and skipping Iemitsu) and Chapter 1 œPine Trees as Political Iconography at NijÅ Castle, pp. 1-33.
1. Apply ideas from these two readings. Explore how the architecture works in terms of its form and its impact.
“ Plutschow, Herbert E. Historical Chanoyu (Tokyo, Japan: Japan Times, 1986), pp. 66-73 and 132-150.
2. For this reading, get hold of the characteristics of the aesthetic principle, wabi, and Rikyu’s ideas in tea ceremony.
“ Berry, Mary Elizabeth, Culture of Civil War in Kyoto (University of California Press, 1994), pp. 259-284.
1.What is a tea diary? Why are they useful to historians?
2.What was the character of later 15th century tea parties? (participants, purpose, activities?)
3.What happened to tea gatherings in the 16th century?
4.What are dÅbÅshÅ« (261) and what is the contrast with 16th-century tea practice?
5.What characterizes tea practice in the 16th century?
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6.What is wabi and its role in tea?
7.What social scope did women have in 16th century cities?
8.What kind of men participated in urban tea gatherings?
9.What is a œtea name (266)?
10.How did merchants use their tea rooms (267)?
11.How often did tea men attend tea gatherings?
12.What role did objects play in tea gatherings? Where were they displayed? (use the vocabulary of architecture)
13.How did tea men foster excitement and freedom from orthodoxies (this theme comes up in several places in the reading)
14.What are some of the reasons why tea ceremony enjoyed relatively wide popularity among commoners as opposed to other cultured pursuits?
15.What was the role of taste (connoisseurship) in tea? Connect this to suki.
16.What is fūryū?
17.How might tea be thought of as an example of gekokujÅ?
