Studio: international art (54.1912)

Old Japanese Folding Screens

SIX-PANEL SCREEN PAINTED BY MA.RUYAMA OKYO (1733"1795)

Castle, where a space of ground was enclosed by a piece of work on a pair of plain kin byobu. Kotei,

large number of byobu belonging to his wife and seeing a great temptation in the shining gold screen,

Yodo-gimi, his favourite court lady. It is said dipped his own handkerchief in sumi, or Japanese

that by the paintings on the byobu the characters ink, and with it he drew on one screen rocks and

of the two women were plainly discernible as they large stalks of bamboo, finishing the picture by

thereby unmistakably revealed their taste. adding the leaves of bamboo with ink on the tips of

Among our illustrations is a six-panel screen his fingers. Kogyo followed Kotei and with his

with willow-trees and a bridge, which is attributed handkerchief drew a plum-tree on the other one of

to Kano Yeitoku (1543-1590). Itissaid to be one the pair, applying white for the blossoms with the

of a hundred pairs of byobu that were painted by bottom of the hexagonal salt-dish that happened

Yeitoku and his pupils, and which were highly to be near. The result was charming and is now

prized by Hideyoshi among the wonderful admired by many. Though no similar recorded

collections of byobu which adorned his famous incident among ancient masters is now recalled by

palace at Momoyama. the writer, there are to be found on some screens

The paintings on some screens show extremely extremely simple sketches which are in strong

minute detail involving endless patience on the contrast to mitsugwa, or minute painting,
part of the painter. It is marvellous to see the In examining some of our illustrations, readers

hundreds of tiny figures, each perfect in every may be at a loss to understand the reason for

detail, in the Toyokuni festival already referred to. . using such bold designs on some of the large

Almost incredible was the amount of patience and screens used exclusively inside the house, since

care exercised by Tosa Mitsuoki in painting a they would seem to be out of all proportion to the

scene from Gengi Monogatari on a low six-panel artistic needs of our small Japanese houses,

screen in the Imperial Household Palace in Tokyo. It must be remembered, however, that originally

In this screen the figures in the interior of the most of these great screens with bold designs were

house were first painted most carefully and then used, not in ordinary private houses, but in large

over all were drawn the very fine horizontal lines palaces with rooms of enormous size. When it is

of the misu (blind made of split bamboo) so as to realised that these byobu were used to screen the

give the effect of seeing the interior through the walls, or to give a suitable background for the

misu. However, one occasionally comes across dignity of a Shogun or a feudal lord, perhaps in

screens with very rough and scanty sketches. The giving an audience to his vassals, in a vast apart-

writer recalls an incident that occurred one day a ment, and were seen from a considerable distance,

few years ago in the Seiyoken Hotel in Uyeno it will be understood how it was that the designs

Park, Tokyo, when Terazaki Kogyo and Fukui had to be of such a bold character in order fully

Kotei, two well-known artists now living, after a to perform their function of decorations,
somewhat free flow of sake, executed a marvellous Harada Jiro.