International studio (45.1912)

Old Japanese Folding Screens

SIX-PANEL SCREEN WITH CHINESE SEAL CHARACTERS WORKED IN BIRDS5 FEATHERS. IN THE SHOSO-IN
REPOSITORY AT NARA
(From “ Toyei Shiko”)



SIX-PANEL SCREEN : “THE TOYOKUNI FESTIVAL” ATTRIBUTED TO IWASA MATABEI (1578-1650)
(In the possession of Marquis Hachisuka)

lacquered wooden panels, as in China. Gold and
silver leaves were used to cover the surface from
comparatively early times either with or without
decoration. Although embroidery is known to have
been employed for years as a decoration, it has
never been applied to screens to the extent it is
now. Cut-velvet, yuzen dyeing, and carved and
inlaid work are almost exclusively used for screens
to satisfy the demand outside Japan.
The Koreans, who produced very strong paper,
were responsible for a great improvement in
screen-making. They introduced hinges made out
of paper and first used that material instead of silk
for covering the whole surface, as is usual to-day.

The manufacture of screens seems to have been
brought to a high state of development in Korea,
and there is evidence to show that at one time
screens as delicate in workmanship as those now
in use in Japan were produced by the Koreans,
though these were preceded by a much stronger and
more clumsy make. However, the characteristic
Japanese screen, somewhat akin in style to that of
the present day, is recorded to have been first
manufactured in Kyoto in Ashikaga times, in the
middle of the fourteenth century, although a
clumsier kind had been made much earlier.
The custom of using paper hinges was speedily
introduced into Japan and China, but in the latter
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