Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/137

 painters, lacquerers, metal-workers, and woodcarvers within the "Four Seas." Historians speak with profound regret of the dismantling and destruction of this splendid edifice after the death of the Taikō's adopted heir; but it is more than probable that the permanent possession of even such a magnificent monument of applied art could not have benefited the country nearly so much as did its destruction. For the immediate result was an exodus of all the experts who, settling at Fushimi, had become famous for the sake of their work in connection with the "Castle of Pleasure." They scattered among the fiefs of the most powerful provincial nobles, who received them hospitably and granted them liberal revenues. From that time, namely, the close of the sixteenth century, there sprang up an inter-fief rivalry of artistic production which materially promoted the development of every branch of art and encouraged refinement of life and manners.

This reference to the history of art in the context of the kitchen may seem discursive. But it is necessary to note the general spread of aesthetic influences and tastes during the Military epoch in order to understand how even the once austere soldier class were swept into the circle of luxurious living.

From the days of Yoshimasa cooking became a science. It had its two academies, the Shijo and the Okusa, each professing to be the sole repository of essential arcana which were