Studio: international art (54.1912)

Old Japanese Folding Screens







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A PAIR OF EIGHT-PANEL GOLD SCREENS PAINTED BY TAWARAYA SOTATSU (SEVENTEENTH CENTURY)

( Owned by the Imperial Household)

the forms of kakemo?w, ye-makimono (picture rolls), delicate lines of gold pigment had been drawn

gwajo (painting albums) or gaku (i.e. framed before.

pictures very much after the fashion of the West The screen paintings of the Kamakura period

but without the glass). (a.d. i 186-1333) show, as do other forms of art, a

A very brief survey of the characteristics of each struggle of two elements in art: the school of the

of the well-marked periods of Japanese history new thinkers with suggestions of the Sung school

in its relation to painting may prove of some value of China, and the old, hard-dying Fujiwara school

in this connection. In the Fujiwara period (a.d. of Kyoto, which did not succumb till the beginning

986-1159) paintings on byobu were commonly in of the Ashikaga period. It suggests the action

strong colours of brilliant finish, of highly decorative and reaction between two rival schools—the

quality and in fantastic forms often difficult of com- , Japanese and Sung of China—one seeking delicacy

prehension—that being the characteristic of the Old where the other strove to be incredibly refined.

Tosa school. Such qualities were perhaps the most Such painters as Shiubun, Noami, Sotan, and

natural product of the age, for the court in the Sesshiu show their mastery over the Chinese style,

peaceful Fujiwara period had attained a state of Sansui (landscape) and kwacho (flowers and birds)

extreme luxury and refinement, the condition of were profusely treated, while warriors were favourite

the time being adequately described as "strange subjects for the artists desiring new scope for their

and exquisite corruption." It was the time when imagination and a new technique. In the lesser

caligraphy was studied as a fine art and left its products of life there was a stir which gave a

mark on the brush-work of the paintings. It was hint of something new to come. The old school

the era when kirikane work (cut gold) assumed an seems to have gained a footing in some of the Zen

important role in the production of sumptuous monasteries, even when a new wave of Indian

religious paintings, which were excluded from influence had reached Japan, thus paving the way

screens. Gold leaf cut to a greater or less degree for the portentous advent of the new school in the

of fineness had been used from the Tempyo period Ashikaga period, which strongly modified the

onwards, but in the Fujiwara period it was so character of Japanese painting, and completely

skilfully applied as to be used where the most changed the destiny of Buddhistic art in Japan.
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