19th Century Japanese Folding Screen

With a banana leaf palm on the left, at water's edge with geese. Perhaps a scene from the southern islands. Mineral pigments on mulberry paper with gold leaf and a silk brocade border.

Late Edo period 19th century Japanese six-panel landscape screen featuring a cypress tree over a flowering hibiscus with a pair of hototogisu birds. Kano school painted with ink and ...

Mori Tetsuzan (1775-1841) Pheasants and Cherry Blossoms Two-fold Japanese screen. Ink, color, gofun, gold and silver on paper. A two-fold Japanese bir...

A two-fold Japanese screen by the Rimpa school artist Sakai Hoitsu (1761-1828), Japan, 19th century, Edo period. This small Japanese folding screen pai...

Flowers & Birds of the Four Seasons Pair of six-fold Japanese Screens. Ink, color, gofun and gold on paper. Second half of the 19th Centur...

A delightful Japanese six panel painted paper screen featuring the beloved figure Hotei, Edo Period, early 19th century. Hotei, called Budai in China, and known as the Laughing Buddha or Fat Buddha in the West, is considered to be an emanation of Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future. In Japan, he also holds a special place as one of the Seven Lucky Gods, being the god of fortune, and protector of children. He is always portrayed as a mirthful and corpulent man, dressed in loose robes that show off his round belly. He carries a sack with him, said to be filled with treasure. As the protector of children, he is often portrayed with them playing on or around him, as he is here. The children portrayed in this screen are dressed in Chinese style clothing...

Japanese Six Panel Screen: Silver Moon Rising Over Summer Field. Rimpa Style painting of a moon rising over summer flowers and grasses, including cockscomb and blue bellflowers. Pa...

Deer under maples Late Taisho period, circa 1925-1930 Pair of two-panel screens. Ink and pigment on silk. Signature: Goho Seal: Goho A pair of two-fold Japanese silk screens...

A Japanese hanging scroll or Kakejiku, circa 1890, depicting bamboo grass and a rabbit, framed by top and bottom ribbons of brocade silk. In ...

Three Friends of Winter Nakajima Raisho (1796-1871) Late Edo period, circa 1850 Ink and gold leaf on paper. This is a double-sided Japanese Furosaki or tea-ceremony screen from the mid 19th century; bamboo and plum on the front, young pines the back. It by Nakajima Raisho, a master painter of the Maruyama school in the late Edo and early Meiji periods. In this work Raisho combines exquisite ink brushwork with large open spaces of brilliant gold-leaf to inspire the viewers imagination. Rather than naturalism, he is searching for the phycological impression of the motifs, resulting in abstraction and stylization. His simplification of the motifs the result of looking to capture the inner nature of the objects. This art motif is known as Sho Chiku Bai, or the Three Friends of Winter. Evergreen pine connotes steadfastness, bamboo suggests both strength and flexibility, while plum blossoms unfurling on snow-laden branches imply hardiness. Combined, this trio is emblematic of Japanese new year. Chinese literati were the first to group the three plants together due to their noble characteristics. Like these resilient plants flowering so beautifully in winter, it was expected of the scholar-gentleman to cultivate a strong character with which he would be able to show the same degree of perseverance and steadfastness even during times of adverse conditions. The screen would have been placed near the hearth of a room used for the Japanese tea ceremony, shielding the fire from draughts and also forming a stimulating and decorative backdrop behind the tea utensils. It would have been used in the Hatsugama, or first tea-ceremony of the new year. Nakajima Raisho (1796-1871) originally studied under Watanabe Nangaku before entering the school of Maruyama Ozui. He was the highest ranking Maruyama school painter at the end of the Edo period and was known as one of the ‘Four Heian Families’ along with Kishi...