Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/298

 Taikō, built at Fushimi, overlooking the beautiful valley of the Yodo River, a castle of unprecedented magnificence. The best artistic resources of the time were devoted to the interior decoration of this "Palace of Pleasure," as it was called, and a host of skilled artisans and artists assembled in Fushimi in connection with the enterprise. Few of the works executed for the Palace have survived, but the chiselling of the silver mounts on two state palanquins which stood in the vestibule show that even on such objects the highest skill of the time was expended. It is known incidentally that many experts great in the decoration of sword-mounts worked in Fushimi during the brief period—some ten years—of its prosperity, but the name of one only has been transmitted as directly associated with the place. This artist, Kanaya, evidently belonged to the artisan class, for his family name is unknown. He attained renown for chiselling landscapes, birds, foliage, and the long, feathery moorland grasses so much affected by Japanese painters and sculptors. His work is compared by Japanese connoisseurs to a moon-lit waterscape seen through an opening in a pine forest.

The seventeenth century was a period of marked development. For the first time during five hundred years the country enjoyed almost complete rest from civil wars, and there sprung up among the various fiefs keen rivalry in the fields of art and industry. One of the fiefs (Kaga) must be specially mentioned in this context. The feudal chief of that province at the time was Mayeda Toshiiye. When the Taikō