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6 Paintings of the Imperial Excursion to Nijō Castle

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6 Paintings of the Imperial Excursion to Nijō Castle 6 Paintings of the Imperial Excursion to Nijō Castle f the marriage of Emperor Go-Mizunoo cursion in vibrant color and meticulous detail. and Tōfukumon’in were not enough to demon- Since the emperor rarely left his palace seclusion, Istrate Tokugawa plans to dominate the dairi and the procession of carriages transporting the mon- establish bakufu control over the ancient capital, arch and his family through the streets of Kyoto to those plans were clearly expressed by the Kan’ei im- Nijō Castle was an overt display of Tokugawa pow- perial excursion (Kan’ei gyōkō) of 1626, when the er, recalling the earlier procession of Emperor Go- Tokugawa hosted—or rather, summoned—the im- Yōzei to the Jurakutei of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. perial family for a fi ve-day excursion to their Kyoto stronghold, Nijō Castle. Authors of offi cial ac- counts of the Kan’ei imperial excursion describe precedents and preparations the costly aff air in celebratory terms, as a confi rma- for an imperial visit tion of the close ties that the Tokugawa had formed with the imperial household.1 It was actually anoth- Hidetada began preparing for the Kan’ei imperial er demonstration, to the court and to the populace, excursion more than two years in advance. He per- of Tokugawa mastery. sonally organized the event and served as the em- Visual testimony of the lavish display and the peror’s host, even though he had relinquished the grand entertainments prepared by the Tokugawa title of shogun to his son Iemitsu three years earlier. exists in several sets of paintings, including a set of Hidetada’s daughter, Empress Tōfukumon’in, was fi ve scrolls entitled Procession for the Imperial Ex- by now the mother of two children by Go- cursion to Nijō of Empress Tōfukumon’in and Emper- Mizunoo. Two years after giving birth to Princess or Go-Mizunoo and the Trip to Kyoto of the Second Okiko in 1623, she gave birth to another girl, Tokugawa Shogun Hidetada in 1626 (Kan’ei sannen Princess Teruko. hinoe tora Tōfukumon’in jūdai ni tsuke Go-Mizunoo To convey his wishes that the emperor be re- tennō Nijō e gyōkō robo oyobi Tokugawa nidai shōgun ceived in great splendor at Nijō, Hidetada called on Hidetada jōraku emakimono; referred to hereafter top offi cials in Kyoto and Edo to assist with the ar- as the Nijō Imperial Excursion; fi g. 61). This set of rangements. At court, chancellor Konoe Nobuhiro, scrolls, in the possession of the Imperial Household Go-Mizunoo’s younger brother and adopted son Collection for the past century, represents the ex- of Konoe Nobutada, was enlisted along with others to organize the event, but it was the bakufu advisor Ishin Sūden who laid much of the groundwork for 2 Kano painter. Go-Mizunoo’s palanquin from Nijō Imperial the Kan’ei imperial excursion. The location for the Excursion, detail of fi g. 66. visit, Nijō Castle, had been built several decades 155 JVC2-pp1-296-Final_HT.indd 155 13-07-11 14:12 art and palace politics 61 Kano painter. Nijō Castle from Nijō Imperial Excursion. 17th century. Detail of scroll one from a set of fi ve handscrolls; ink, colors, and gold on paper. H. 33.5 cm. Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shōzōkan, Tokyo. earlier by Tokugawa Ieyasu and had become a stag- The Kan’ei imperial excursion recalled three ing ground for Tokugawa displays of power. Nijō previous events, discussed in Chapter 1: the visit of Castle served more as the Tokugawa administrative Emperor Go-Komatsu to the Kitayama palace of headquarters in the ancient capital than as a mili- Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the visit of Emperor Go- tary bastion; in fact, it had a minimal garrison. The Hanazono to the Muromachi palace of Ashikaga castle is pictured in the left screen from the pair Yoshinori, and the visit of Emperor Go-Yōzei to with Scenes in and around Kyoto in the Burke Foun- Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s Jurakutei. Many spectators dation, which is loosely dated to several years after viewing Go-Mizunoo’s procession to Nijō must the Kan’ei imperial excursion (fi g. 62).3 have heard of the opulent festivities that had oc- A number of imperial family members partici- curred at Jurakutei. Some might even have wit- pated in the Kan’ei imperial excursion: not only Go- nessed Go-Yōzei’s procession in person. Mizunoo and Tōfukumon’in, but their daughters The Tokugawa decided to adhere to many of the and Go-Mizunoo’s mother, Chūkamon’in. Reading precedents set by Hideyoshi in hosting Go-Yōzei at between the lines, we realize that the Tokugawa did Jurakutei. They determined that events would un- not mean the visit merely as an opportunity to ce- fold as follows. First the shogun, Iemitsu, would go ment a bond with the imperial family, but also as a to the imperial palace and meet the emperor to chance to impress upon those at Nijō—as well as launch the excursion. The imperial guests would citizens at large who were bound to hear of and pos- then process to Nijō with scores of nobles and hun- sibly even see the procession—that the Tokugawa dreds of servants in attendance. The shogun would were true masters of the land. The procession of entertain the imperial guests for fi ve days with per- carriages that transported the imperial family formances, festivities, and displays of art. He would through the streets of Kyoto was a display of shogu- lavish gifts on his guests, and fi nally, after the impe- nal power in that a warrior lord was summoning rial family had returned home to the palace, the Go-Mizunoo away from his palace. shogun would pay them a visit and off er thanks for 156 JVC2-pp1-296-Final_HT.indd 156 12-07-11 14:20.
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