ENTERTAINMENT   The word kaisho literally means gathering or audience hall. It first came about in the Kamakura  Period, the oldest mention found in Kamo no Chomei's Mumyosho (1211-12).  At that time, the word was used to denote the various rooms or buildings in palace-style architecture whose roles were for informal gatherings.  The arrival of the kaisho as a completely independent structure came at earliest the end of the Kamakura period (1185-1333).  Yoshimitsu's Muromachi palace (c.1378) exemplifies the first time in which a kasha structure was included in a shogun residence, although it was not the first use of the kasha in residences of the military aristocracy.  The kaisho represents the fact that, as part of the high-class society associated with the owner, entertainment was a key aspect of daily life.  It was primarily used for social gatherings.  The interior arrangement of the kaisho resulted form the social activities that took place in them.  Kaisho were regularly used for special occasion as tanabata festivities, flower arranging and vase competitions, saragaku and no performances, tea guessing, the monthly Chinese and Japanese linked verse meetings, moon-, flower-, and snow viewing parties, and on occasions for Buddhist ceremonies.  Banquets held by the military aristocracy were often for purely social purposes after formal interviews or state ceremonies.  In the shogunal residences especially, it was used for regular audiences and meetings as well as for receptions and banquets for honored members of the nobility and clergy.  On these occasions, the kaisho was used to its fullest capacity, with emphasis on a display art objects.
 
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