Lot Essay
The Hokoku festival was celebrated with a parade and dancing at the Hokoku Shrine in Kyoto in 1604 to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the death of the military warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi in August of 1598. It was a week-long celebration, from August 12-18. There was a festival with a No dance at this shrine every year on April 18 and August 18. On the occasion of the seventh anniversary, however, there was a parade on the main street leading to the shrine and dancing in front of the shrine, the highlight of the festival.
This event was documented in two famous pairs of screens. One is preserved in the Hokoku Shrine itself; the other is in the collection of the Tokugawa Art Museum. The screens in the shrine, the earlier of the two pairs, were commissioned of Kano Naizen (1570-1616) by Hideyoshi's son, Hideyori, and were presented to the shrine. The Tokugawa Art Museum screens are in the eccentric, frenzied style of Iwasa Matabei and date from sometime between 1615 and 1624.
The screen shown here might at first glance appear to be a panoramic bird's-eye view of famous sights in the Higashiyama hills that line the eastern edge of the capital running from north to south. The left-hand screen, in particular, has no obvious link with the festival. It features Kiyomizu Temple at the upper right and the Gion Shrine to the left. Crowds of pilgrims and sightseers have turned out to drink tea, dance and frolic with abandon under the springtime cherry blossoms.
On the right screen, where red foliage signals autumn, we see the festival procession moving from left to right along the wide roadway that leads to Hokoku Shrine, which fills the right half of the screen. Temporary viewing platforms have been erected along the road; several have their bamboo blinds raised to reveal groups of male spectators. The elevated No stage is visible at the center of the enclosed courtyard in front of the shrine, flanked by a small bell tower and a drum tower. Further back on the right is the elevated storehouse for scriptures. The costumes for the fancy-dress parade that took place on the fourth day (August 15) include the fat-faced Okame at the head of the procession, followed by a group affecting European costume (this was the era of Portuguese traders) one of whom rides and ox, then the bamboo-shoot monster (at the bottom of the fourth panel from the right), and Ebisu with a carp on a fishing line.
Also typical of this event are the wide-brimmed, fringed hats with elaborate floral decoration and the enormous and fanciful festival umbrellas. One umbrella shown here is surmounted with a huge peacock, another with peacock feathers.
Many other outdoor recreations are added here that are irrelevant to the festival itself. This tendency to divorce themes from the festival is linked to the downfall of the Toyotomi family in 1615. The festival itself was inevitably discontinued when the Tokugawa shogunate took power.
Only one or two screens similar to this type are known. One, formerly in the Chokokan Museum, was destroyed in a fire. Another is in a private collection in Kyoto. (See Takeda Tsuneo, "Hokoku matsuri-zu no tokushitsu to tenkan" in Nihon byobu-e shusei, Vol. 13 (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1978), figs. 22-23, p. 120)
This event was documented in two famous pairs of screens. One is preserved in the Hokoku Shrine itself; the other is in the collection of the Tokugawa Art Museum. The screens in the shrine, the earlier of the two pairs, were commissioned of Kano Naizen (1570-1616) by Hideyoshi's son, Hideyori, and were presented to the shrine. The Tokugawa Art Museum screens are in the eccentric, frenzied style of Iwasa Matabei and date from sometime between 1615 and 1624.
The screen shown here might at first glance appear to be a panoramic bird's-eye view of famous sights in the Higashiyama hills that line the eastern edge of the capital running from north to south. The left-hand screen, in particular, has no obvious link with the festival. It features Kiyomizu Temple at the upper right and the Gion Shrine to the left. Crowds of pilgrims and sightseers have turned out to drink tea, dance and frolic with abandon under the springtime cherry blossoms.
On the right screen, where red foliage signals autumn, we see the festival procession moving from left to right along the wide roadway that leads to Hokoku Shrine, which fills the right half of the screen. Temporary viewing platforms have been erected along the road; several have their bamboo blinds raised to reveal groups of male spectators. The elevated No stage is visible at the center of the enclosed courtyard in front of the shrine, flanked by a small bell tower and a drum tower. Further back on the right is the elevated storehouse for scriptures. The costumes for the fancy-dress parade that took place on the fourth day (August 15) include the fat-faced Okame at the head of the procession, followed by a group affecting European costume (this was the era of Portuguese traders) one of whom rides and ox, then the bamboo-shoot monster (at the bottom of the fourth panel from the right), and Ebisu with a carp on a fishing line.
Also typical of this event are the wide-brimmed, fringed hats with elaborate floral decoration and the enormous and fanciful festival umbrellas. One umbrella shown here is surmounted with a huge peacock, another with peacock feathers.
Many other outdoor recreations are added here that are irrelevant to the festival itself. This tendency to divorce themes from the festival is linked to the downfall of the Toyotomi family in 1615. The festival itself was inevitably discontinued when the Tokugawa shogunate took power.
Only one or two screens similar to this type are known. One, formerly in the Chokokan Museum, was destroyed in a fire. Another is in a private collection in Kyoto. (See Takeda Tsuneo, "Hokoku matsuri-zu no tokushitsu to tenkan" in Nihon byobu-e shusei, Vol. 13 (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1978), figs. 22-23, p. 120)