Relics of the ruler who unified Japan come to Leeds

Relics of the ruler who unified Japan come to Leeds

Martin Wainwright
Monday June 6, 2005
The Guardian

Delicate negotiations between British museum curators and a Japanese
shrine have unlocked a 400-year-old chest of sacred art, which goes
on show today under the supervision of Shinto priests.
Paintings on gold leaf and minute instructions about military
etiquette in a savage civil war will be on display for three months
at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, along with a spidery letter from
the English sea-pilot William Adams, whose story inspired the best-
selling novel Shogun.

The exhibition tells the story of Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu, the 17th-
century unifier of Japan who took the title Shogun and was later
declared a god. The status of objects such as a vast gold fan which
he carried at his many battles led to years of negotiations over
their first loan for showing abroad.
"It has been a triumph for international cooperation," said Paul
Evans, chief executive of the Royal Armouries, which will return a
number of the most delicate artworks after only six weeks as their
fragile condition requires limited exposure to light.

"It has called on all the expertise, diplomacy and determination of
the staff of the Royal Armouries and the Nikko Toshogu shrine
(dedicated to the Shogun) to bring to life the story of a great
man."

Launched yesterday with a hair-raising display of Yabusame, the high-
speed mounted archery which won Tokugawa's battles, the exhibition
also shows the mismatch in understanding between Japan and the west
for centuries. In spite of the presence of men such as Adams, an
Armada war veteran who advised the Shogun on naval policy, ignorance
was sometimes spectacular.

The exhibition includes a presentation suit of armour sent by the
Shogun to England's King James I which within 30 years was
catalogued at the Tower of London as "a gift from the Great Moghul"
(of India). Even greater indignities were inflicted on similar suits
sent to the court in Austria, where they were reclassified for
diplomatic purposes to do with the conquest of Mexico as "having
belonged to Montezuma and his son".

Shogun is at the Royal Armouries until August 30