International studio (45.1912)

Old Japanese Folding Screens


SIX-PANEL SCREEN: “PERSIMMON-TREE” PAINTED BY SUZUKI KIITSU (1796-1858)
( Owned by Beppu Kinshichi, Esq.)

with the six-panel screen known by the name ot
the Hikone byobu in the possession of the Ii family
of Hikone. The painting, The Four Accomplish-
ments, shows a masterly hand, without an equal in
genre painting. For a long time it served as a
touchstone for testing the genuineness of other
pictures ascribed to Iwasa Matabei (1573-1650),
the founder of the Ukiyo-e school of painting,
though it was finally found to be by another artist.
Famous also is the pair of two-panel byobu,
owned by Count Tsugaru, with a painting of plum-
trees and water by Ogata Korin (1658-1716),
founder of the Korin school. How effectively
decorative yet wonderfully realistic is this
painting in representing the spirit of the hardy
plum-trees that bloom in snow and the water in
strong lines of exquisite curves, can be appreciated
even from our reproduction of that screen (p. 119).
The Imperial Household owns a remarkable pair
of low eight-panel gold screens with pictures of fans
painted byTawaraya Sotatsu, whois recorded to have
worked in the Kwanyei era (1624-1643). It is not
to be wondered at that so many ardent admirers of
our art in the West should have gone into ecstasies
over this pair of byobu when they were exhibited at
the Japan-British Exhibition in London last year.
A long list of other notable byobu might be
named, such as the pair with the scenery of the
Hodzu River painted by Maruyama Okyo (1733-
1795) and owned by Nishimura Sozaemon, but space
does not permit us to mention any others.
Almost every variety of subject and technique is
to be found in paintings on byobu. Thus kwacho
(kwa meaning flowers, cho meaning birds), jinbutsu,

or human figures, sansui, or landscape {san denoting
mountains and sui meaning water), and such other
subjects as dragons in clouds, tigers in bamboo
thickets {take ni torcg lions among peonies {shishi
ni botan), and autumnal grass {aki-gusoi), are ex-
haustively treated in screen-painting.
Screens covered with gold leaf, called by the
Japanese kin-byobu, are greatly admired chiefly
because of their quality of colour and beauty of
tone. Some bold designs upon the gold ground,
such as the one here reproduced with pine-trees
exquisitely drawn in black ink by Kano Terunobu,
are exceedingly effective. Those covered with silver
leaf, known as gin byobu, are also highly valued, as
the silver turns dark with age and exposure, re-
vealing a subtle beauty in the softness of the tone.
Gold and silver are used not only in the form of
leaf, but also as sunago (gold or silver “ sand ”),
prepared by cutting or breaking the leaf into bits,
and sprinkling over the desired parts in the painting
on the screen. They are also used as zei, a paste
made of gold or silver dust, glue and water, which
is applied with a brush like other colours.
Often extremely clever devices are employed in
the decoration of screens. Bands of clouds—
sometimes of gold or silver, sometimes of rokusho
(verdigris) or gunjo (prussian blue), sometimes
vaguely tinted white—-are used most advantageously
to cover unessentials or to separate a distant from
a near scene, always with the added function of
enhancing the decorative effect of the whole.
We are told that at the time of the great earth-
quake in July 1596, Hideyoshi with his family and
retainers sought refuge in the garden of Osaka

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