A significant feature of sixteenth-century Japan is that the warrior class was overwhelmingly the mobilizing force behind the preservation of various literary traditions. Warriors became prominent patrons of the arts during an unpredictable time when the upheaval of war had already begun to disrupt the center of cultural dominance and carried them beyond the imperial protection of the capital city of Kyoto and its financially stricken nobility. This was a crucial period for the warrior to maintain a delicate balance between two seemingly opposite forces—bu, the arts of war necessary for conquest and survival, and bun, the arts reflecting elegance and sophistication that ultimately legitimized one's cultural supremacy. Hosokawa Yusai, who was famous both as a warrior and poet and respected for his guardianship of a long-kept literary legacy, successfully combined these two realms.

Yusai is generally acknowledged by historians to be the fourth son of the...