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Lot Essay
One screen depicts the Itsukushima Shrine festival on Miyajima, an island in the Inland Sea off the coast of Hiroshima; the other shows the Sumiyoshi Shrine festival in Osaka, on the shore of the Inland Sea. Both landscapes are shown as a bird's-eye view, with the landscape angled sharply so that the horizon all but disappears at the top edge of the screen. Gold-leaf cloud bands float across the surface. Within the larger clouds, which are edged with a triple line of dots, are smaller cloud forms done in the raised moriage technique, using a gessolike substance made from ground shells.
Sumiyoshi Shrine is located at the southern end of Osaka on Osaka Bay and is dedicated to four Shinto deities, each housed in a building of its own. The buildings, seen at the top of the second panel from the left, are in the simple Sumiyoshi style of architecture, roofed with cedar bark. The shrine offered protection and prosperity for sailors, fishermen, poets and merchants.
A pair of two-storey pagodas flank the entrance gate of a temple compound at the top of the far left panel. A red torii gate (second panel from the left) marks the entrance to Sumiyoshi Shrine. A distinctive arched bridge (taikobashi) crosses a canal between the gate and the shrine precinct. The bridge, characteristic of all depictions of Sumiyoshi, is said to have been donated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) and his consort Yodogimi in the Keicho era (1596-1615). Other familiar elements of this shrine landscape are the groves of huge pine trees and the seashells on the beach.
The annual festival, shown here, is in late July. Groups of strong young men accompanied by dancers with fans carry the mikoshi (portable shrines) out of the shrine and across the arched bridge. There, they encounter a theatrical procession of men in amusing, exotic costumes passing beneath the torii gate and winding through town. The group includes warriors in armor and some foreigners, or Nanbanjin. A falconer and a dog on a leash are in the vanguard, having crossed a small bridge leading to the neighboring town of Sakai at the far right. The very few who are not watching this astonishing spectacle have cordoned off picnic areas, using colorful curtains. A flotilla of pleasure boats clogs the bay. The charm of these screens lies in their wealth of informative detail.
Itsukushima Shrine is one of Japan's fabled "Three Great Beauty Spots," along with Amanohashidate and Matsushima. These "celebrated places" provided the subject matter for many screens during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As travel for purposes of pilgrimage and sightseeing increased, so did the popularity of such picturesque sites. Itsukushima was dedicated originally to the patron god of seafarers. It became the tutelary shrine of the Taira clan under Taira Kiyomori when he was governor of Aki province in the mid-twelfth century. Kiyomori, like his father before him, was actively engaged in trade and shipping routes in the Inland Sea and beyond. Once he became the most powerful figure in the capital, Kiyomori ferried boatloads of aristocrats to the island to show off his family's exquisite shrine and its treasures. The island itself was considered sacred, and commoners were not originally allowed to set foot on land; the shrine was built like a pier over the water, permitting pilgrims to approach by boat. The beauty point is the red entrance gate, which, like the corridors of the shrine, appears to float in the sea at high tide.
On the screen shown here, overloaded boats press close to the shrine to permit the occupants a glimpse of the Noh performance on a small stage cantilevered over the water. The corridors of the shrine are packed with spectators. Tourists, including foreigners (see detail image) roam the nearby streets looking for souvenirs and checking out the local sights, just as they do today. Deer infiltrate the town, looking for handouts. The Thousand Mat Pavilion, on a promontory at the bottom of the third panel from the left, was constructed by Hideyoshi in 1587 as an offering to the shrine.
The panoramic views, sea and flotillas connect the two summer festivals compositionally and thematically.
Sumiyoshi Shrine is located at the southern end of Osaka on Osaka Bay and is dedicated to four Shinto deities, each housed in a building of its own. The buildings, seen at the top of the second panel from the left, are in the simple Sumiyoshi style of architecture, roofed with cedar bark. The shrine offered protection and prosperity for sailors, fishermen, poets and merchants.
A pair of two-storey pagodas flank the entrance gate of a temple compound at the top of the far left panel. A red torii gate (second panel from the left) marks the entrance to Sumiyoshi Shrine. A distinctive arched bridge (taikobashi) crosses a canal between the gate and the shrine precinct. The bridge, characteristic of all depictions of Sumiyoshi, is said to have been donated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) and his consort Yodogimi in the Keicho era (1596-1615). Other familiar elements of this shrine landscape are the groves of huge pine trees and the seashells on the beach.
The annual festival, shown here, is in late July. Groups of strong young men accompanied by dancers with fans carry the mikoshi (portable shrines) out of the shrine and across the arched bridge. There, they encounter a theatrical procession of men in amusing, exotic costumes passing beneath the torii gate and winding through town. The group includes warriors in armor and some foreigners, or Nanbanjin. A falconer and a dog on a leash are in the vanguard, having crossed a small bridge leading to the neighboring town of Sakai at the far right. The very few who are not watching this astonishing spectacle have cordoned off picnic areas, using colorful curtains. A flotilla of pleasure boats clogs the bay. The charm of these screens lies in their wealth of informative detail.
Itsukushima Shrine is one of Japan's fabled "Three Great Beauty Spots," along with Amanohashidate and Matsushima. These "celebrated places" provided the subject matter for many screens during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As travel for purposes of pilgrimage and sightseeing increased, so did the popularity of such picturesque sites. Itsukushima was dedicated originally to the patron god of seafarers. It became the tutelary shrine of the Taira clan under Taira Kiyomori when he was governor of Aki province in the mid-twelfth century. Kiyomori, like his father before him, was actively engaged in trade and shipping routes in the Inland Sea and beyond. Once he became the most powerful figure in the capital, Kiyomori ferried boatloads of aristocrats to the island to show off his family's exquisite shrine and its treasures. The island itself was considered sacred, and commoners were not originally allowed to set foot on land; the shrine was built like a pier over the water, permitting pilgrims to approach by boat. The beauty point is the red entrance gate, which, like the corridors of the shrine, appears to float in the sea at high tide.
On the screen shown here, overloaded boats press close to the shrine to permit the occupants a glimpse of the Noh performance on a small stage cantilevered over the water. The corridors of the shrine are packed with spectators. Tourists, including foreigners (see detail image) roam the nearby streets looking for souvenirs and checking out the local sights, just as they do today. Deer infiltrate the town, looking for handouts. The Thousand Mat Pavilion, on a promontory at the bottom of the third panel from the left, was constructed by Hideyoshi in 1587 as an offering to the shrine.
The panoramic views, sea and flotillas connect the two summer festivals compositionally and thematically.