Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(8) Stone Buddha, one of a group of unusually large rock-carved Buddhas near Usuki in
Kyūshū.
By the middle of the sixteenth century, however, even though fighting was to continue
on and off for another 50 years, conditions began to settle down, and the advancement of
commerce and the arts became possible. In 1573, rule over virtually the whole of Japan
cameintothehandsofoneman,OdaNobunaga.Hewasapassionateandruthlessman;for
example, he burnt a whole monastery complex of temples, with all its inhabitants, as part
of his plan to take power away from the Buddhist warrior-priests who had been so great
a destructive force in preceding years. At the same time he was devoted to the arts, and
when he was killed in 1582 by one of his generals (whom he had slighted), the attack on
thetemplewherehewasstayingoccurredwhilehewasdancingapiecefroma
nō
play.His
successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who continued the work of unifying Japan, is almost as
famous for the splendor of his cherry-blossom viewing parties as for his good government
of the country and his unsuccessful invasion of Korea.
