This is a rather slight work by a great scholar of Japanese history and literature, describing the political futility and great cultural impact of the Ashikaga shogun Yoshimasa. As shogun he was very ineffectual, and his mismanagement of the designation of his successor set off the Onin War which raged in Kyoto for ten years and almost completely destroyed the city, as well as the power of the shogunate, leading to the situation in which Japan was dominated by rival regional warlords (daimyo). However the main focus of the book is not on Yoshimasa's feeble politics but on his influential contributions to Japanese culture --in gardening, poetry, the tea ceremony, No plays, Buddhism, and especially architecture, with the creation of the famous Silver Pavilion in a restrained subtle style that later came to be seen as typically Japanese. It is very informative if one can bear reading about the devastation that Yoshimasa largely ignored while creating his artistic achievements. 80, 000 people died of famine in Kyoto while he spent lavishly on his palace. ( )

Anyone in the west who's studied Japan should be familiar with Donald Keene. He certainly possesses formidable knowledge when it comes to the Japanese arts (especially literature) and he's a good storyteller, but as a historian he is somewhat lacking.

Keene's strengths and faults are on clear display throughout this book. At roughly 160 pages of double-spaced, wide-margin text, it's more of a short essay than historical treatise; furthermore, the narrative often strays far afield from its alleged thesis. In fact, it's more a series of vingettes about various places or events in Japanese history, or Japanese artforms, than a serious, critical examination of how (to say nothing of how much) Yoshimasa contributed to "the creation of the soul of Japan", to borrow the book's subtitle.

And therein lies my biggest critical issue with the text; it's hard to believe Keene's sweeping assertion that Yoshimasa was the crucial factor in the creation of so many "typically" Japanese artforms...especially considering the fact that even Keene himself (seemingly unaware of the irony) admits that they were already widespread among the populace (poetry) or mainly developed by others (the tea ceremony) before Yoshimasa tried his hand at them. Furthermore, a closer look at Japanese history reveals that many "typically" Japanese artforms were created by commoners (kabuki, ukiyo-e, poetry) before filtering up to the elites, and that those forms that did originate as or became the sole preserve of elites (gagaku, kanshi) exercise much less influence on Japanese culture. Finally, the near total destruction of Kyoto during the Onin war makes it impossible to verify that the innovations Keene credits to Yoshimasa were not actually widespread during said time period.

And then there's the problems with Keene's own biases. He admits that the record concerning Yoshimasa as an individual is both sparse and that what little does exist is not likely to be subjective. Keene thus resorts to frequent speculation as to Yoshimasa's character and motives; his attitude toward the few women in Yoshimasa's life who merited mention in patriarchal Ashikaga-era Japan is surprisingly hostile.

End verdict: it's definitely worth the read for anyone interested in Japan, and Keene does an especially good job of summarising the convoluted history of the Onin War and the mid- to late-Ashikaga shogunate. But a work of serious history this is not. That said, despite the reservations expressed above, I do recommend this one.