Read Me First

The Expo will open on 31st, December, 2000 and run for one full year.

Gifu Prefecture witnessed many fascinating events during the Sengoku Period. This age, also called the era of the Warring States, lasted for most of the 16th century. We hope to publicise Gifu's role widely, at home and abroad. The pavilion will host crafts and manufactured products, and cultural artefacts. Many of these things emerged and flowered during the long epoch from the Kamakura to the Edo Periods, that is, more or less, the Sengoku Period. But they are alive and well with us today. Gifu was once called Inoguchi, but during the Sengoku Period took the name by which it is known today, giving at a new identity. To welcome the new century we have hunted out traces of old Sengoku Gifu and found links from them into the Gifu of the present. This will help to show how it that we are what we have come to be today.

This site will introduce the warriors of the Sengoku Period, and their world, focussing on connections with Sekigahara. That epic battle brought to an end more than a century of endemic fighting, and ensured an age of peace, and the theatre of battle was Gifu. We can find the roots of much of our contemporary industry and culture in the signs, symbols, designs and motifs of that period. Historical documents have been entered into a database so as to be retrievable easily from any angle, as the user wishes, following his or her interests. We do not present history lost in the past, but history that is relevant now. We use two key concepts: information and design. Much that usually falls outside the embrace of history has been included here - cultural and craft products, social structures, trade and transport, and the environment. Many fields have been trawled to find arrive at all kinds of viewpoints, in order to create an entirely new edifice of history.

The term literally means the period of the 'warring states'. It was a time when central authority collapsed and the Japanese archipelago broke into hundreds of competing entities. This is usually defined as beginning with the Onin War (1467-77), which began in Kyoto as a succession dispute; the period is said to close with ending with Hideyoshi's entry into Kyoto in 1568. It was a full century of war, and a fundamental turning point in Japanese history. This website paints a larger picture so as to put the period in its context, and covers about 200 years.

In the international arena, this was when Portugal and Spain were building their empires and sailing throughout the world. In 1492, Columbus landed on the American continent 'discovering' the New World. Magellan circumnavigated the globe. European consciousness began to embrace India, Asia and the Americas. This had relevance for Japan when Iberian missionaries began to land there.

[society]
The gradual loss of centralised power, with a weakening shogunate, sent all regions sliding into warfare. The term used at the time for this condition was 'gekokujo' - those below overthrowing those above. They also used the term 'ran' - chaos. A class of warlord emerged, known as Sengoku daimyo (a daimyo is a regional lord, literally a 'great landholder').
Under 'gekokujo', each group tried to establish its own independent power, and the central shogunate could do nothing about loss of its prestige.
Two features of the period are an economic surge and increasing urbanisation. Agriculture advanced too, with large irrigation projects expanding yields. The daimyo needed financial bases for their military ambitions, and developed mining and industry. Gold and silver deposits were discovered and worked (Japan was formerly rich in precious metals), and iron foundries were built. Much of the industry was geared to the production and improvement of military hardware.

[art and culture]
Although this was a period of endemic bloodshed, literature enjoyed something of a peak. Daimyo invited scholars, Confucian experts, artists and clerics from Kyoto to their domains, to enhance their aura. In some cases, independent local cultures emerged, helping build up daimyo authority.
Much of what we regard as fundamental features of Japanese cultural life today came into being at this time. The tea ceremony, ikebana, noh, kyogen and kabuki, as well as many arts and crafts, waka poetry and renga (linked verse), ink painting, wall painting, shoin-style architecture and the gorgeous castle keep, garden design - all these either emerged, or reached their flower, in the Sengoku Period.
Another important fact was the arrival of Christianity, first with Iberian Jesuit missionaries. Their impact was great, and among the Sengoku daimyo several converted and became staunch believers.