Folding Screens byoobu

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kigo for the New Year

. hatsubyoobu 初屏風 (はつびょうぶ)
first use of a folding screen


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kigo for all summer

. yoshi byoobu 葭屏風（よしびょうぶ）reed folding screen 　　
moji byoobu 綟屏風（もじびょうぶ） folding screen with hemp cloth
sudare すだれ　and more kigo



kigo for late summer

. byoobu matsuri 屏風祭（びょうぶまつり）folding screen festival
　
During the Gion Festival in Kyoto.
The rich merchant homes display the folding screns which are usually hidden with the family treasures in the special storehouses.



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kigo for all winter

. portable folding　screens, byoobu 屏風 　
with more byoobu kigo



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BIOMBO .. Byoobu

QUOTE
© MICHAEL DUNN /　Japan Times, Oct. 4, 2007

East and West in mists of gold
By MICHAEL DUNN

Most people outside of Japan demonstrate their wealth and success by living in ever-larger spaces and by accumulating more and more stuff to fill them. Contrast walls covered with paintings and every level surface cluttered with objects to the traditional Japanese ideal of an empty room in which artworks join furnishings just for a particular chapter in life's drama — and are then put away again.



With the exception of decorated sliding doors already in situ, paintings in the form of hanging scrolls or folding screens were brought out of storage to briefly echo a mood or season. One feels there is something to be learned here.

Even a taste for grandeur could be satisfied temporarily by the magnificent painted screens that can be seen in "BIOMBO — Japan Heritage as Legend of Gold," the current exhibition at the new Suntory Museum in Tokyo Midtown. The organizers have employed the Portuguese / Spanish word biombo (a transliteration of byobu: a folding screen, or wind-block) to underscore the historic importance of screen paintings as diplomatic gifts. (Although guessing the meaning of the rest of the title, "Japan Heritage as Legend of Gold," requires some creative imagination).

To my knowledge, this is the first major show dedicated solely to screens since that of the Fenollosa Collection from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts was displayed at a Takashimaya department store in 1991. The selection includes masterpieces from various traditional schools of painting, including some of the aforementioned gifts that have returned on loan from museums in Europe, America and South Korea.

Folding screens arrived in Japan from China via Korea during the 7th century and functioned until the modern period as folding walls to delineate space and thwart chilling drafts in unheated buildings. In keeping with a preference for paintings that could be easily stored, the folding screen provided an ideal, portable format for artists who liked to work on a much grander scale.

The concept of large-scale painting evolved so, that during the Muromachi Period (14th-16th centuries), we see pairs of six-panel screens, each roughly 3.5 meters wide by over 1.5 meters high, decorated with contiguous paintings. This format lends itself perfectly to scenes from nature, especially paintings of idealized landscapes such as the celebrated West Lake in China, or compositions of birds, flowers, trees and animals. At the same time, artists found inspiration in what they experienced daily, and we also see the appearance of genre paintings depicting such subjects as shrine horses, court scenes and ordinary but colorful street life.

Budget permitting, gold was often employed for decorative effect and to reflect light, no matter how dim the source — be it from the moon or a candle flame. Gold leaf was pasted on to provide backgrounds or clouds, while gold dust was applied to suggest a glowing mist or luminous atmosphere.

Apart from domestic roles, screens also served a ritual function at Imperial and shogunal courts, military and religious institutions, and in the various ceremonies for life's rites of passage. Even today, plain gold screens often appear in the background of important events, as if to add gravitas to the promises of politicians or newlyweds.

The screen paintings displayed in this exhibition are organized to show their formation and development, their role in ceremony, those influenced by contact with the West, the profusion of styles since the 16th century, and those, that for one reason or another, left Japan.

Most of them are breathtakingly beautiful and I would be very happy to take home the Muromachi Period pair of landscapes with the sun and the moon from Kongoji Temple, or the Suntory's 19th-century pair showing waves on gold by Kano Seisenin Osanobu.

But perhaps the most historically fascinating are the screens depicting Western subjects: Western kings, European cities, the Battle of Lepanto, and the arrival of Europeans at the ports of Kyushu, all dating from that brief late-16th- to early-17th-century period before Japan isolated itself from the rest of the world until the 1850s.

Despite the latest state-of-the-art museum lighting boasting all the UV-control that conservators require, these screens are still lighted from overhead in a way that didn't exist when they were made. While their splendor is undiminished, it should be remembered that they were never, ever seen this way by their creators, nor painted with anything other than lateral light in mind, and so a little imagination will be needed to envisage them as they were intended.

These wonderful objects were made for another time, a traditional way of living that has all but perished, and as almost no one has any space for them anymore, good examples turn up in better antique shops. It is still possible to buy magnificent Edo Period screens for a few million yen — a fraction of what one would pay for mediocre paintings of the same period in Europe. The Biombo show provides an excellent opportunity to polish one's eyes and connoisseurship.

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© Santory Museum




. Nanban art (南蛮美術) .
Akita ranga (秋田蘭画)
Dutch learning 蘭學 / 蘭学　rangaku


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Osaka Zu Byobu (Scenes of Osaka)
大阪図屏風




Medieval Japan artifact inspires Germany-based Japanese artist
By Marjan Bex

In an exhibition in the Netherlands, Keiko Sadakane, a Japanese artist based in Germany, attempts a modern, sober interpretation of a medieval Japanese folding screen recently discovered in Europe, counterposing a fragment of Japanese history with events taking place in the West in the same era.

The piece, known as ''Paravento Regale,'' makes reference to the format and the golden ground of the Japanese folding screen, which depicts Osaka Castle before it was destroyed in 1615.
The screen, ''Osakajo-zu-byobu,'' was found in the Eggenberg Palace in the Austrian city of Graz, and mostly likely found its way there through the hands of Dutch merchants.
The eight panels into which it was divided were each embedded into the rococo walls of one of the most fashionable Indian rooms of the palace, expert Barbara Kaiser from the Eggenberg Palace explained to Kyodo News over the phone from Graz.

''We always knew this screen was there, and it was always visible, but it was only after a thorough restoration lasting from 2001 to 2004 that its importance became clear to us,'' she said.
''To fully understand the piece of art, in 2007 an investigation project was started in cooperation with the universities of Cologne and Osaka,'' she said. ''Now visitors can again see it in its full glory where it has been since its arrival at the castle in the early 18th century, as part of the rococo wall decoration.''

Sadakane was occupied with a project called ''Besuch'' (Visit) about Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), a medieval Japanese warlord, and Jesuits who were making visits to Japan at that time. Oda entrusted a folding screen depicting the famous Azuchi Castle in what is now Shiga Prefecture to the Jesuit delegation as a gift to the pope in Rome but the screen has gone missing.
The painter of this screen, Kano Eitoku (1543-1590), was involved in decorating Osaka Castle --- the subject of the screen found in Graz.

''Paravento'' is the Italian word for screen. ''Regale'' makes reference not only to ''royalty'' but also to ''Palazzo Regale,'' an installation created by the German artist Joseph Beuys (1921-1986), whose art Sadakane greatly admires.

The collection of 33 shining brass plates contains references to European and Japanese history in the form of inscribed words in Japanese, Latin, Dutch and German.
Sadakane's interpretation of the folded screen is multilayered and its meaning stretches out to other objects at the exposition.
''In choosing the Latin, Dutch and Japanese words in 'Paravento Regale,' I deliberately thought of very old Japanese terms, and I think perhaps not all Japanese will immediately understand it,'' Sadakane said. ''But that will form part of the mystery of art.''
Full text
source : home.kyodo.co.jp


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Symposium zum japanischen Stellschirm
des Schlosses Eggenberg




Am 21. August 2008 war das Kunsthaus Graz Schauplatz eines Symposiums, bei welchem der in Schloss Eggenberg in Graz wiederentdeckte japanische Stellschirm mit Ansichten der Stadt und des Schlosses Osaka (Ôsakajô-zu-byôbu) aus dem 17. Jahrhundert im Mittelpunkt stand. Noch zuvor war aus diesem Anlass ein Empfang am 18. August 2008 im Schloss Eggenberg gegeben worden. Eine einmalige Gelegenheit, den Byôbu bei Kerzen- und Mondlicht zu besichtigen, wurde den Gästen des Empfangs zuteil. Herr Ryuta Mizuuchi, Gesandter der Japanischen Botschaft in Wien, hob in seiner Begrüßungsrede hervor, dass der Stellschirm Beweis des bis auf das 17. Jahrhundert zurückzuverfolgenden Kulturaustausches zwischen Österreich und Japan sei und drückte seine Hoffnung aus, dass dessen gemeinsame Erforschung unter japanischen und österreichischen Akademikern neue Ansätze zur weiteren Zusammenarbeit und zum verstärkten Austausch auch auf der Landes- bzw. Gemeindeebene im Lichte des Austauschjahres Japan-Österreich 2009 führen werde.


Beim Symposium beleuchteten japanische und deutsche Fachleute in jeweils 30-minütigen Vorträgen die Darstellungen auf dem Stellschirm, seine Verwendung, die Bedeutung seiner Entdeckung und die Geschichte von Schloss Osaka. Der Eggenberger Stellschirm besitzt einen außergewöhnlich hohen kulturhistorischen Wert und hat auch in Japan großes Interesse erregt. Abgebildet ist Osaka, die blühende Residenzstadt von Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), in einer Ansicht aus der Zeit vor 1614/1615. Da Osaka in zwei Kämpfen in den Jahren 1614 und 1615 dem Erdboden gleichgemacht wurde, ist die Darstellung des Paravents in ihrer Vollständigkeit von umso größerer Bedeutung.

Darüber hinaus zeichnet sich der Stellschirm durch einzigartige Details aus: So zeigt er etwa die „Paradies-Brücke“ mit ihren prachtvollen Brückenaufbauten. Die Brücke, die auf den Übergang in das Paradies des Buddha Amida, in das alle Gläubigen nach ihrem Tod zu gelangen wünschten, anspielt, befand sich nur von 1596 bis 1600 in dieser Form vor Ort. Danach wurden die prächtigen Brückenaufbauten abgebaut und in das Mausoleum für Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Kyoto integriert.


Toyotomi Hideyoshi liebte es, sich mit seinen Frauen auf Booten zu vergnügen. Der Ôsakajô-zu-byôbu zeigt Hideyoshis berühmtes Vergnügungsschiff „Phönixboot“, von dem bisher keine andere Abbildung existiert. Auf die luxuriöse Ausstattung deuten der vergoldete Phönix auf dem Dach, die weißen Reiherdarstellungen auf den Außenwänden und die Weidenmalereien im Inneren hin.

Der „Dritte Schlossverteidigungsbezirk“, der 1598/1599 errichtet wurde, ist ebenfalls von keinem anderen Bild bekannt. Dargestellt ist der Bereich Sasanomaru, der dem Schutz des Eingangs zum „Zweiten Schlossbezirk“ dient. Die reich verzierten, goldfarbenen Wolkenbänder - ein typisch japanisches Stilmittel, um verschiedene Ortsansichten und zeitlich getrennte Ereignisse in einer Komposition zu vereinen - sind in einmaliger Weise reliefartig mit drei verschiedenen Blumenmustern ausgearbeitet.

Vor dem Jahr 2001 war die Bedeutung des Stellschirms unbekannt.
Der Raum, in dem er untergebracht war, war auch „indianisches Kabinett“ genannt. Ursprünglich handelte es sich um einen achtteiligen Paravent. Dieser wurde im 18. Jahrhundert in seine acht Teile zerlegt, die einzeln als Wanddekoration, kombiniert mit exotisierenden Wandmalereien, eingepasst wurden. Die Restaurierung 2001 führte zur Wiederentdeckung des japanischen Stellschirms, nachfolgend wurde durch Frau Dr. Franziska Ehmcke, Universität zu Köln, die Kansai Universität in Japan zu Rate gezogen. Die eingehende Untersuchung des Stellschirms führte schließlich zur Erkenntnis, dass es sich beim Ôsakajô-zu-byôbu um ein kostbares Zeugnis der Toyotomi-Periode handelt. Der tatkräftige Einsatz der japanischen, deutschen und österreichischen Fachleute wirft nun ein neues Licht auf den akademischen Wert des Stellschirms und die Entwicklung des damit in Zusammenhang stehenden japanisch-europäischen Austausches.

Das „indianische“ Kabinett wurde dann schließlich zum „japanischen“ Kabinett umbenannt.

source : www.at.emb-japan.go.jp



japanese LINK with all details
tategaki.jp/data_B/2009/11/post_3.html



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Byoobu and Tsuitate - Daruma on a Screen　屏風, 衝立とだるま


. Fusuma - Daruma on a Sliding Door
襖絵とだるま


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