The Higashiyama Gomotsu is a name given to the famous tea ceremony utensils established at Higashiyama Villa during the reign of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the 8th Shogun of the Ashikaga Shogunate. Gomotsu, according to documents from the Han and Wei dynasties onward, was the Chinese term for articles used for the use of the emperor. The term “go-mono” was also used in Japan around the Heian period (794-1185) to refer to items in the emperor’s storehouse. The Shosoin Gomotsu at Todaiji Temple in Nara is the oldest example. However, in the Muromachi period (1336-1573), the Ashikaga shoguns’ collection was also referred to as go-mono, and since the shoguns’ collection was superior to that of the emperor in terms of quantity, the term go-mono has been used since the mid-Muromachi period as if it referred to the shoguns’ collection. The Higashiyama Gomotsu were selected from among the Chinese masterpieces collected by the shoguns from the time of the first Takauji, and included hanging scrolls, trays, incense containers, candles, incense burners, vases, tea bowls, leaf tea vases, tea caddies, and other miscellaneous vessels. Higashiyama Gomotsu pottery listed in “Yamakami Soji Ki” includes Mikazuki tea pots, Matsushima tea pots, Shijuseki tea pots, Hashidate tea pots, and tsukemo-nasuji tea caddies. After Yoshimasa’s death, the Gomotsu were dispersed with the fall of the Muromachi shogunate, and were purchased by samurai families and feudal lords of the shogunate and wealthy merchants in the Kinai region, and some of them became the property of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Some of them were purchased by the samurai families and feudal lords of the Shogunate and wealthy merchants in the Kinai region, and some of them became the possessions of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
