ABSTRACT
II T SEEMS, at first, a rather surprising fact that the tea ceremonial, acme of sophisticated simplicity, reached its climax at exactly the same time that Momoyama art attained its most resplendent gorgeousness. The
richly colored and gilded paintings and carvings of Hideyoshi's period represented the surging vitality of a country re-established in strength and order; the tea ceremonial represented the survival power of the old Muromathi esthetics. And that, in turn, represented something deep and fundamental in the Japanese character, which could be temporarily eclipsed but would invariably show forth again. In the beginning this feeling had been a simple love of nature; under Zen it had developed into a highly conscious esthetic of naturalism; now, oriented about a new form, it was to have a popular flowering which eventually touched and affected almost every phase of the national life. Its influence'is still strongly visible at the present day.
