DOI article:
Harada, Jirō: Old Japanese folding screens
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43448#0132
Old Japanese Folding Screens
A PAIR OF EIGHT-PANEL GOLD SCREENS PAINTED BY TAWARAYA SOTATSU (SEVENTEENTH CENTURY)
( Owned by the Imperial Household)
the forms of kakemono, ye-makimono (picture rolls),
gwajo (painting albums) or gaku (i.e. framed
pictures very much after the fashion of the West
but without the glass).
A very brief survey of the characteristics of each
of the well-marked periods of Japanese history
in its relation to painting may prove of some value
in this connection. In the Fujiwara period (a.d.
986-1159) paintings on byobu were commonly in
strong colours of brilliant finish, of highly decorative
quality and in fantastic forms often difficult of com-
prehension—that being the characteristic of the Old
Tosa school. Such qualities were perhaps the most
natural product of the age, for the court in the
peaceful Fujiwara period had attained a state of
extreme luxury and refinement, the condition of
the time being adequately described as “ strange
and exquisite corruption.” It was the time when
caligraphy was studied as a fine art and left its
mark on the brush-work of the paintings. It was
the era when kirikane work (cut gold) assumed an
important role in the production of sumptuous
religious paintings, which were excluded from
screens. Gold leaf cut to a greater or less degree
of fineness had been used from the Tempyo period
onwards, but in the Fujiwara period it was so
skilfully applied as to be used where the most
118
delicate lines of gold pigment had been drawn
before.
The screen paintings of the Kamakura period
(a.d. 1186-1333) show, as do other forms of art, a
struggle of two elements in art: the school of the
new thinkers with suggestions of the Sung school
of China, and the old, hard-dying Fujiwara school
of Kyoto, which did not succumb till the beginning
of the Ashikaga period. It suggests the action
and reaction between two rival schools—the
Japanese and Sung of China—one seeking delicacy
where the other strove to be incredibly refined.
Such painters as Shiubun, Noami, Sotan, and
Sesshiu show their mastery over the Chinese style.
Sansui (landscape) and kwacho (flowers and birds)
were profusely treated, while warriors were favourite
subjects for the artists desiring new scope for their
imagination and a new technique. In the lesser
products of life there was a stir which gave a
hint of something new to come. The old school
seems to have gained a footing in some of the Zen
monasteries, even when a new wave of Indian
influence had reached Japan, thus paving the way
for the portentous advent of the new school in the
Ashikaga period, which strongly modified the
character of Japanese painting, and completely
changed the destiny of Buddhistic art in Japan.
A PAIR OF EIGHT-PANEL GOLD SCREENS PAINTED BY TAWARAYA SOTATSU (SEVENTEENTH CENTURY)
( Owned by the Imperial Household)
the forms of kakemono, ye-makimono (picture rolls),
gwajo (painting albums) or gaku (i.e. framed
pictures very much after the fashion of the West
but without the glass).
A very brief survey of the characteristics of each
of the well-marked periods of Japanese history
in its relation to painting may prove of some value
in this connection. In the Fujiwara period (a.d.
986-1159) paintings on byobu were commonly in
strong colours of brilliant finish, of highly decorative
quality and in fantastic forms often difficult of com-
prehension—that being the characteristic of the Old
Tosa school. Such qualities were perhaps the most
natural product of the age, for the court in the
peaceful Fujiwara period had attained a state of
extreme luxury and refinement, the condition of
the time being adequately described as “ strange
and exquisite corruption.” It was the time when
caligraphy was studied as a fine art and left its
mark on the brush-work of the paintings. It was
the era when kirikane work (cut gold) assumed an
important role in the production of sumptuous
religious paintings, which were excluded from
screens. Gold leaf cut to a greater or less degree
of fineness had been used from the Tempyo period
onwards, but in the Fujiwara period it was so
skilfully applied as to be used where the most
118
delicate lines of gold pigment had been drawn
before.
The screen paintings of the Kamakura period
(a.d. 1186-1333) show, as do other forms of art, a
struggle of two elements in art: the school of the
new thinkers with suggestions of the Sung school
of China, and the old, hard-dying Fujiwara school
of Kyoto, which did not succumb till the beginning
of the Ashikaga period. It suggests the action
and reaction between two rival schools—the
Japanese and Sung of China—one seeking delicacy
where the other strove to be incredibly refined.
Such painters as Shiubun, Noami, Sotan, and
Sesshiu show their mastery over the Chinese style.
Sansui (landscape) and kwacho (flowers and birds)
were profusely treated, while warriors were favourite
subjects for the artists desiring new scope for their
imagination and a new technique. In the lesser
products of life there was a stir which gave a
hint of something new to come. The old school
seems to have gained a footing in some of the Zen
monasteries, even when a new wave of Indian
influence had reached Japan, thus paving the way
for the portentous advent of the new school in the
Ashikaga period, which strongly modified the
character of Japanese painting, and completely
changed the destiny of Buddhistic art in Japan.