Japanese gold leaf screen

Floral scene of a "Rimpa School" garden with polychrome chrysanthemum flowers. Six-panel screen painted with pigments on golden rice paper of good size and well preserved. Bold color...

This 18th century six-panel screen is truly special. The author is unknown, but his singular genius in portraying dozens of chrysanthemum flowers created with the white of the "gofun...

Japanese Kano School Six Panel Screen: Landscape with Beautiful and Elegant Cranes near the River, with Pines and Sakura. Hand painted with mineral pigments and inks on vegetable pap...

Four-panel folding screen depicting the famous legend of Hikaru Genji, a nobleman of extraordinary grace and beauty, and his gallant adventures at court. The novel Genji Monogatari, ...

Large Japanese Edo period six-panel folding silver leaf screen featuring Chinese style brush calligraphy of a poem. Squares of silver leaf with a vintage patina and calligraphy script on verso as seen in losses. The front of the screen decorated with large Buddhist...

Mineral pigments on gold leaf with brocade border. Calligraphy and sketching on back paper.

A pair of six-fold Japanese screens from the 17th century depicting a flock of cranes arriving at their wintering grounds. The expansive scene is heavily atmospheric. The cranes are...

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...