living by serving as patrons of trade and manufacturing guilds in Kyoto and by exploiting the few arts and aptitudes permitted them by aristocratic tradition.
One emperor was even reduced to selling his calligraphy on the streets of the city, writing out in his beautiful hand a poem or motto requested by some patron and receiving in exchange a small gift. Lack of funds to pay for proper funeral services or coronation ceremonies forced the imperial family to get along without a properly invested emperor during three different periods in the sixteenth century. At one time there was no duly enthroned emperor for a period of twenty-one years. The fortunes of the imperial line had indeed sunk low. Only the force of historical tradition kept it and its satellite court aristocracy from disappearing entirely.
The political chaos of the Ashikaga period and the sad state of the imperial court have left behind a traditional picture of these two and a half centuries as a dark age in Japanese history. This picture is far from accurate, for the political confusion was but a sign of rapid growth, and in the turmoil the Japanese as a whole were making great strides forward culturally and economically.
With the financial eclipse of the court aristocracy, cultural leadership in the capital city of Kyoto naturally passed to the Shogun’s court. In fact, some of the Ashikaga Shogun are far better known to history as patrons of art than as political leaders. Gathering about them some of the finest artists and literary men of the day, they at times presided over a culturally brilliant if politically ineffective court.
