Hikone screen
The Hikone screen (彦根屏風, Hikone byōbu) is a Japanese painted byōbu folding screen of unknown authorship made during the Kan'ei era (c. 1624–44). The 94-×-274.8-centimetre (37.0 × 108.2 in) screen folds in six parts and is painted on gold-leaf paper. It depicts people in the pleasure quarters of Kyoto playing music and games. The screen comes from the feudal Hikone Domain, ruled by the screen's owners, the Ii clan. It is owned by the city of Hikone in Shiga Prefecture, in the II Naochika Collection.
The work is seen as representative of early modern Japanese genre painting; some consider it the earliest work of ukiyo-e. In 1955 it was designated a National Treasure of Japan and given the official name Shihon Kinjichaku-shoku Fuzoku-zu (紙本金地著色風俗図).
Description
The 94-×-274.8-centimetre (37.0 × 108.2 in) byōbu screen[1] depicts a scene in which eleven male and female figures amuse themselves. On the left, a blind man and some women play shamisens before a four-panel byōbu screen with a landscape painted on it. To their right a group of men and women play a sugoroku board game.[2]
Analysis
The manner of brushstrokes indicate the anonymous painting is in the style of the ja school. The activities of the figures in the Hikone screen display the traditional Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar. The clothing and personal items of the figures suggest the four seasons, as in traditional "four seasons pictures" (四季絵, shiki-e).[2]
The work is anonymous, which would have been typical of such genre works; further, if the artist were of the Kanō or similar schools, the common subject matter would have been considered beneath the artist's dignity and thus would likely not have been signed. The screen was a probably a commission, and it was customary for artists not to sign works made for those of high rank.[1] At times scholars have attributed it to Iwasa Matabei (1578–1650), including Ernest Fenollosa, who considered the screen an early work of ukiyo-e, and Matabei thus the genre's founder.[3]
Reception and legacy
The work has been considered a masterpiece of Japanese genre painting since at least the mid-17th century. It has been widely copied, sometimes with variations, and some of the copies themselves have found renown.[1] In 1955 it was designated a National Treasure of Japan and given the official name Shihon Kinjichaku-shoku Fuzoku-zu (紙本金地著色風俗図).
References
- ^ a b c Kondo 1961, p. 144.
- ^ a b Kikuchi 1963, p. 106.
- ^ Kita 1999, pp. 44–45, 51.
Works cited
- Kikuchi, Sadao (1963). Ukiyo-e. Hoikusha. ISBN 978-4-586-50021-5.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Kondo, Ichitaro (1961). Japanese Genre Painting: The Lively Art of Renaissance Japan,. translated by Roy Andrew Miller. Tuttle Publishing.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Kita, Sandy (1999). The Last Tosa: Iwasa Katsumochi Matabei, Bridge to Ukiyo-e. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-1826-5.
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Further reading
- Hikone Castle Museum; Tokyo Research Institute for Cultural Properties (2008). 国宝彦根屛風. Chuokoron-Shinsha. ISBN 978-4-8055-0557-1.
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External links
- Details at the National Treasures of Japan website (in Japanese)
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