Collecting and patronage of art in seventeenth century Japan: The Maeda daimyo.

摘要

The seventeenth century in Japan began as an age of patrons and became an age of collectors. In my study, I focus on the third Maeda daimyo, Toshitsune (1593–1658), and his grandson Tsunanori (1643–1724), the fifth Maeda daimyo, rulers of Kaga domain (present-day Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures). Over the course of two generations, Toshitsune's force as a patron of painting and lacquer gave way to Tsunanori's obsessive book and handicraft collecting. In this thesis, I discuss the daimyo's cultural activities and explore the artists active in the Kaga domain during their tenures.; In chapter one I present as a background a history of how the Maeda collections came into being, and where they are housed today along with resources for their study. Chapter two focuses on the first of the two main figures of this study, Toshitsune, and details the shogunal visit of 1629 as well as the building of Zuiryûji, the most significant cultural projects of his career. The next chapter discusses artists at work in Kaga domain during Toshitsune's time who were brought out from Kyoto on his orders, specifically the Rimpa, Kano, and Igarashi schools. The fourth and fifth chapters focus on the figure of Tsunanori. Chapter four chronicles his book collecting activities and the Hyakkô hishô collection of kôgei samples, while chapter five continues the story of second-generation artists active in Kaga.