is a Kanō-school

byōbu are Japanese folding screens made from several joined panels, bearing decorative painting and calligraphy, used to separate interiors and enclose private spaces, among other uses. History are thought to have originated in Han dynasty C ...

or folding screen attributed to the Japanese painter

Kanō Eitoku was a Japanese painter who lived during the Azuchi–Momoyama period of Japanese history and one of the most prominent patriarchs of the Kanō school of Japanese painting. Life and works Born in Kyoto, Eitoku was the grandson of Kanō Moto ...

(1543–1590), one of the most prominent patriarchs of the

Kanō school The is one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting. The Kanō school of painting was the dominant style of painting from the late 15th century until the Meiji period which began in 1868, by which time the school had divided into many di ...

Japanese painting is one of the oldest and most highly refined of the Japanese visual arts, encompassing a wide variety of genres and styles. As with the history of Japanese arts in general, the long history of Japanese painting exhibits synthesis and competitio ...

. The painting dates to the

Azuchi–Momoyama period The was the final phase of the in Japanese history from 1568 to 1600. After the outbreak of the Ōnin War in 1467, the power of the Ashikaga Shogunate effectively collapsed, marking the start of the chaotic Sengoku period. In 1568, Oda Nobuna ...

(1573–). Now in

Tokyo National Museum The or TNM is an art museum in Ueno Park in the Taitō ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the four museums operated by the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage ( :ja:国立文化財機構), is considered the oldest national museum in Japan, ...

, it has been designated a

National Treasure The idea of national treasure, like national epics and national anthems, is part of the language of romantic nationalism, which arose in the late 18th century and 19th centuries. Nationalism is an ideology that supports the nation as the fundame ...

Painting

This Japanese folding screen was made from several joined panels. Screens were used to separate interiors and enclose private spaces, among other uses. This work is considered a representative work of Eitoku, who pioneered the bold "colour and gold" style. The painting is a polychrome-and-gold screen that depicts a cypress tree against the backdrop of gold-leafed clouds, and surrounded by the dark blue waters of a pond. The painting stretches across two four-panel folding screens from circa 1590; it is made of paper covered with

gold leaf Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...

, depicting a cypress tree, a symbol of longevity in Japan.

Background

Commonly attributed to

(1543–1590), there is another theory based on a reference to a commission in that the painting was instead made by Eitoku's younger brother . The eight panels originally took the form of four painted

shōji A is a door, window or room divider used in traditional Japanese architecture, consisting of translucent (or transparent) sheets on a lattice frame. Where light transmission is not needed, the similar but opaque ''fusuma'' is used (oshiire/ ...

, later remounted, which helps account for some of the discontinuities in the image. After the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

the paintings passed from the

Katsura-no-miya :''See also Prince Katsura, the second son of Prince Mikasa.'' The was the one of the four ''shinnōke'', branches of the Imperial Family of Japan which were eligible to succeed to the Chrysanthemum Throne in the event that the main line should ...

to the Imperial Household and thence to the nation.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Entry at National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties of National Museums, Japan
National Treasures of Japan Japanese paintings Landscape paintings Byōbu Paintings in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum