Samurai means "he who serves," and these fierce warriors acted in the service of powerful feudal lords known as daimyo. Among the most important daimyo families were members of the Hosokawa clan, whose lineage dates back some six hundred years. Lords of the Samurai illuminates the private and public lives of the daimyo by focusing on approximately 160 works from the Hosokawa family collection housed in the Eisei-Bunko Museum in Tokyo, the Kumamoto Castle and the Kumamoto Municipal Museum in Kyushu. Objects discussed include suits of armor, armaments (including swords and guns), formal attire, calligraphy, paintings, tea ware, lacquer ware, masks and musical instruments. Hosokawa Morihiro, eighteenth-generation head of the Hosokawa family and seventy-ninth prime minester of Japan, introduces the book. Takeuchi Jun'ichi, director of the Eisei-Bunko Museum, contributes an essay of the literary world of the daimyo. Yoko Woodson, curator of Japanese art at the Asian Art Museum, surveys the history of the Japanese warrior over several centuries. Deborah Clearwaters, director of education at the Asian Art Museum, considers the artistic world of the samurai, with special emphasis on the Way of Tea (chanoyu). Lords of the Samurai demonstrates that Japanese warriors were not mere fighters but were also dedicated and inspired men of culture. It lays bare the principles that governed the spirit of the samurai, enabling it to endure for hundreds of years and continue to resonate today.

Lords of the Samurai: The Legacy of a Daimyo Family

Woodson, Yoko

Rinne, Melissa M.

Reference

Asian Art Museum

Filled with over 100 vivid works of art and insightful essays, In the Moment is an extensive work, featuring several Japanese art forms and crafts. Inspired by an early love of Japanese aesthetics, tech entrepreneur and avid art collector Larry Ellison has assembled an impressive collection of Japanese art spanning some eleven hundred years of history. The current selection, which introduces the collection to the public for the first time, is organized into four areas: sculpture, painting, lacquer, and metalwork. Highlights include a remarkable wood figure of Shotoku Taishi at age two, dating to the late 1200s or early 1300s; painted screens showcasing the use of classical Japanese and Chinese themes by Kano school artists in the late 1500s and early 1600s; and whimsical paintings of animals by innovative masters active in Kyoto in the 1700s. The catalogue also features lacquers representing the Rinpa and Ritsuo traditions of craftsmanship and design; examples of the Japanese armor maker's art; and bronze vases and objects from the Meiji (1868–1912) and Taisho periods (1912–1926).

In the Moment: Japanese Art from the Larry Ellison Collection

Arts & Photography

Allen, Laura W.

Sano, Emily J.

History & Criticism

Filled with over 100 vivid works of art and insightful essays, In the Moment is an extensive work, featuring several Japanese art forms and crafts. Inspired by an early love of Japanese aesthetics, tech entrepreneur and avid art collector Larry Ellison has assembled an impressive collection of Japanese art spanning some eleven hundred years of history. The current selection, which introduces the collection to the public for the first time, is organized into four areas: sculpture, painting, lacquer, and metalwork. Highlights include a remarkable wood figure of Shotoku Taishi at age two, dating to the late 1200s or early 1300s; painted screens showcasing the use of classical Japanese and Chinese themes by Kano school artists in the late 1500s and early 1600s; and whimsical paintings of animals by innovative masters active in Kyoto in the 1700s. The catalogue also features lacquers representing the Rinpa and Ritsuo traditions of craftsmanship and design; examples of the Japanese armor maker's art; and bronze vases and objects from the Meiji (1868–1912) and Taisho periods (1912–1926).

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