Rakuchū Rakugaizu

Views Inside and Outside of Kyoto

Other views
12

Pair of six-panel screens, ink, color and gold on gold foil and paper.

This remarkable pair of screens shows scenes inside and outside of Kyoto in the seventeenth century. This is a type of screen that found popularity from the sixteenth century in the late Muromachi period through the Momoyama and Edo periods. They were created with great attention to detail and the pair at hand is a particularly fine example from the early Edo period.

The screens show the famous sites of the eastern and the western sides of the capital city. On the eastern side, we see the following sites (going from right to left): Inari Shrine, Great Buddha Hall (Daibutsuden), the bell tower of the Great Buddha Hall, Sanjū sangendō , Gojō Bridge, Kiyomizu Temple, Gion Shrine, Kamo Shrine, and the Imperial Palace. On the western side, we see (again from the right): Kuramayama, Kamo Shrine, Kibune, Kinkakuji Temple, Nijō Castle, Kitano Shrine, Hyakumanben, Uzumasa (Kō ryū ji Temple), and Yodo Castle.

The amount of details on the screens is nothing short of amazing. Some of the activities we see include: horse racing at Kamo Shrine, archery competition at the Sanjū sangendō , the Gion festival procession, sword fights between masterless samurai or rō nin, shops selling their wares, and travelers viewing the sites. The people include: blind musicians with their biwa, Ji Sect dancers and gong beaters, beggars, samurai, prostitutes, officials, lepers, monks, salesmen, vendors, and many others. The shops include a place selling ducks and pheasants, a tea shop on the street, brothels, pawn broker, textile shop, hat shop, and many other stores, some with prominently displayed shop marks.

The dating of these screens has generally been done on the appearance and disappearance of famous structures. Of these, the appearance of structures is relatively sure: we know that the screen cannot have been made before the appearance of a new building, say Yodo Castle.1 In this pair of screens, we can see the following early seventeenth-century structures: the new Great Buddha Hall (Daibutsuden), Yodo Castle (Yodojō ), and Nijō Castle (Nijō jō ). As these structures were built or remodeled in, respectively, 1612, 1625, and 1626, this places the screens to after 1626. The aforementioned Daibutsuden was struck by lightening and burned down in 1798, so we know at the very latest that the screens were made before this. An example in the Idemitsu Museum of Art—which, judging from internal evidence, dates from 1607–1623— forms a close match in terms of composition, detail, and the use of gold clouds and color.2 Based on the comparison with the Idemitsu screen and others, it is likely that the present screen derives from the same painting workshop, and that it was also painted in the early part of the seventeenth century.

The screens were made as presents and sometimes as expensive souvenirs for provincial lords on visits to Kyoto. As such they carried an aura of cultural prestige and were treasured as reflections of the ancient capital city. The present work seems to have been treasured for generations. A new owner apparently replaced the old screen box by making a new wooden box, dated in 1831, the twelfth year of the Tenpō period.

Inquire about this item