Muromachi Period Cultural Flowering in Japan

1421

Under Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimochi, Kyoto's cultural life reached an exquisite refinement that belied the political fragility beneath the lacquered surface. Noh drama was codified by the playwright and theorist Zeami Motokiyo, the tea ceremony took its first formal shape, and ink wash painting absorbed Chinese Southern Song aesthetics into something distinctly Japanese. The aesthetic sensibility of wabi-sabi, finding beauty in impermanence and simplicity, crystallized in this era of impending political collapse.