Gold Powder and Gunpowder: the Appropriation of Western
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GOLD POWDER AND GUNPOWDER: THE APPROPRIATION OF WESTERN FIREARMS INTO JAPAN THROUGH HIGH CULTURE by Seth Robert Baldridge A thesis submitted to the faculty of The University of Utah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Art History Department of Art and Art History The University of Utah August 2015 1 Copyright © Seth Robert Baldridge 2015 All Rights Reserved 1 2 The University of Utah Graduate School STATEMENT OF THESIS APPROVAL The thesis of Seth Robert Baldridge has been approved by the following supervisory committee members: Winston Kyan , Chair May 27th, 2015 Date Approved Jessen Kelly , Member June 17th, 2015 Date Approved Mamiko C. Suzuki , Member Date Approved and by Brian Snapp Chair/Dean of the Department/College/School of Art and Art History and by David B. Kieda, Dean of the Graduate School. 2 ABSTRACT When an object is introduced to a new culture for the first time, how does it transition from the status of a foreign import to a fully integrated object of that culture? Does it ever truly reach this status, or are its foreign origins a part of its identity that are impossible to overlook? What role could the arts of that culture play in adapting a foreign object into part of the culture? I propose to address these questions in specific regard to early modern Japan (1550-1850) through a black lacquered ōtsuzumi drum decorated with a gold powder motif of intersecting arquebuses and powder horns. While it may seem unlikely that a single piece of lacquerware can comment on the larger issues of cultural accommodation and appropriation, careful analysis reveals the way in which adopted firearms, introduced by Portuguese sailors in 1543, shed light on this issue. While the arquebus’s militaristic and economic influence on Japan has been firmly established, this thesis investigates how the Kobe Museum’s ōtsuzumi is a manifestation of the change that firearms underwent from European imports of pure military value to Japanese items of not just military, but also artistic worth. It resulted from an intermingling of Japanese-Portuguese trade, aesthetics of the noble military class, and cultural accommodation between Europeans and Japanese that complicates our understandings of influence and appropriation. To analyze this process of appropriation and accommodation, the first section begins with a historical overview of lacquer in Japan, focusing on the Momoyama period, and the introduction of firearms. The second iv section will go into the aesthetics of lacquerware, including the importance of narrative symbolism and use in the performing arts with a particular emphasis on the aural and visual aesthetics of the drum. Finally, I will discuss this drum in the global contexts of the early modern era, which takes into account the tension between the decline in popularity of firearms as well as the survival of the drum. Pieced together, these various aspects will help to construct a better understanding of this unique piece’s place in the Japanese Christian material culture of early modern Japan. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………...iii LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………...……....vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………...……………………...………ix INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………….…………..……1 PART 1. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE KOBE ŌTSUZMI OVERVIEW OF JAPANESE LACQUERS…………………….……………………..…5 MOMOYAMA LACQUERWARE………...……………………………………………15 THE ARRIVAL OF THE ARQUEBUS……………...…………………………………19 PART II. NARRATIVE, PERFORMANCE, AND YŪGEN: THE AESTHETICS OF THE KOBE ŌTSUZMI NARRATIVE IMAGERY AND THE AESTHETICS OF WARRIOR CULTURE.…...25 THE LACQUER DRUM IN PERFORMANCE ARTS…………………………………29 THE LACQUER DRUM AND YŪGEN………………………………………………32 PART III. DECLINE, SURVIVAL, AND ACCOMMODATION THE DECLINE OF THE GUN ………………………………………….……………39 THE SURVIVAL OF THE ŌTSUZUMI……………………………….…….…………45 THE ŌTSUZUMI IN GLOBAL TRADE..……………………………….………..……54 vi MUTUAL ACCOMMODATION AND JAPANESE CHRISTIAN MATERIAL CULTURE: THE KOBE ŌTSUZUMI REVISITED…………………………………....58 CONCLUSION…………………………...……………..…………………….…..……66 KANJI GLOSSARY……………………………………………………………………..71 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………..………74 vi vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Black lacquered drum base with gun motif, 16th to early 17th century, Kobe Museum……………………………………………………………………………………4 2. Writing utensil box with design of Hatsuse mountain landscape and monkeys, late 16th century, Tokyo National Museum………………………...…………….…...….10 3. Portable chest of drawers for incense with design of autumn grasses, late 16th to early 17th century, Tokyo National Museum…………………………...….…………..11 4. Mitamaya (Spirit House), ca. 1594, Kōdaiji temple, Kyoto...……………..…...…......12 5. Tankard, 1600-1620, Victoria and Albert Museum…………………………….……...13 6. Set of shelves with designs from the Tale of Genji, late 16th to early 17th century, Tokyo National Museum……………………………………………………………...….14 7. Detail from The Battle at Nagashino, 17th century, Tokugawa Art Museum…..……..24 8. Saddle with designs of river, bridge, and willow, 1585, Equine Museum of Japan, Kanagawa……………………………………………………………….…......….28 9. Detail from Splashed Ink Landscape, Sesshū Tōyō, 1495, Tokyo National Museum………………………………………………………………………..…………38 10. Ichikawa Ebizō as Saitō Dōsan, Utagawa Kunisada, 1836, British Museum, London…………………………………………………………………………………...44 11. Writing utensil box with maki-e motif of Southern Barbarian and dog, early 17th century, Kobe City Museum………………………………………….……………..52 12. Matchlock pistol, early 17th century to mid-19th century, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.………….………………………………………………….....………..52 vi viii 13. Drum body, dated 1566, Tokyo National Museum…...…………...……………...….53 14. Coffer, late 16th century to early 17th century, Victoria and Albert Museum……...…57 15. Nambanji, late 16th century, Kobe City Museum………………..………………..…64 16. Young Japanese, 1620, Caramulo Museum………………………………………….65 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I want to thank my advisor and chair of my committee, Winston Kyan. Thank you for all of your encouragement, insight, and the many hours you’ve spent on helping me write this. My writing and research skills have improved by leaps and bounds because of your support. I also want to thank my other chair members: Jessen Kelly, for her wonderful classes that helped me discover the object discussed in this thesis, and Mamiko C. Suzuki, for her invaluable perspectives on Japanese culture. Additional thanks go to other faculty members of the Department of Art and Art History, Lela Graybill and Elena Shtromberg, for their challenging and illuminating classes. I also want to thank Jeff Lambson, one of my amazing mentors who encouraged me to pursue a graduate degree in art history. Special thanks to my colleagues, Rachel Povey, Aubrey Hawks, Alexandria Lang, and Jennifer Sales, for their friendship and support through this academic mountain climb (additional thanks to Jennifer for her French translation skills). Most of all, I’d like to thank my wonderful parents, Steve and Debbie Baldridge. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to pursue my academic goals and for your years of love and encouragement. Thanks Dad, for encouraging me to keep going, even when the going gets tough. Thanks Mom, for your academic accomplishments that made me want to earn my own master’s degree. I love you both. 1 INTRODUCTION When an object is introduced to a new culture for the first time, how does it transition from the status of a foreign import to a fully integrated object of that culture? Does it ever truly reach this status, or are its foreign origins a part of its identity that are impossible to overlook? What role could the arts of that culture play in adapting a foreign object into part of the culture? I propose to address these questions in specific regard to early modern Japan (1550-1850) through a black lacquered ōtsuzumi (hand-drum base) decorated with a gold powder motif of intersecting arquebuses and powder horns (Fig. 1). It is currently held in the Kobe City Museum’s Namban art collection. According to the museum, this piece was made sometime during the Azuchi- Momoyama period (or just Momoyama period), which began around the 1560s and ended in the early 1600s. The drum is 27.8 centimeters tall, and 11.1 centimeters in diameter. It has a cylindrical shape like an hourglass, or two goblets joined at the necks in perfect vertical symmetry. The wooden frame is coated in lustrous black lacquer, and although some ripples can be seen, it is overall very smooth. Several images of arquebuses, the early forerunners of the musket, crisscross with powder horns across the black surface, creating dynamic patterns. Cords are scattered on different parts of the frame, some coiled up in a loop, some weaving behind the guns. This asymmetry had become very popular in the decorative arts by the end of the Momoyama period.1 The 1 Melvin and Betty Jahss, Inro and Other Miniature Forms of Japanese Lacquer Art (Rutland and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1971), 65. 2 arquebuses are made of gold powder that has been sprinkled over the lacquer in an apparently non-relief technique that was also common at the time. Also like similar drum bases from the time, the execution of the two motifs would have likely required two different processes. The first motif would have needed to be applied and allowed to harden before the other motif could be added. 2 The artist used needles to etch out the fine lines and shapes of the rifles, and likely used varying mixtures of metal powders to create both smooth-looking