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Article: From Japan to the NGA: The World of the Daimyo
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- October 25, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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It is easy to imagine warriors of old in this now-peaceful
coastal town, where samurai homes hide behind whitewashed walls on
narrow streets and the ruins of a once-grand castle rise above a
stone-banked moat.
Finely honed swords and ceremonial battle gear are carefully
preserved in a local museum, as are intricately drawn depictions of
heroic struggles between warrior clans that today still figure in
Japanese lore.
But here, too, are signs of the other side of Japan's
warrior-filled Middle Ages: the serene teahouses where feudal
military lords, or daimyo as they are called in Japanese, retreated
to contemplate beauty; the ink paintings and screens of soothing
mountain scenes that they ...