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Unfolding Beauty

Exhibition Highlights

Highlights on View August 14 – September 16


<I>Tiger Family</I>, early 1800s
Kishi Ganku (1756-1838)
Tiger Family, early 1800s
Edo period (1615-1868)
Pair of six-fold screens; ink and color on paper
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1983.3.2

Birds and Flowers; Animals and Beasts

Among classical Chinese painting themes introduced into Japan, the category of birds and flowers attracted special attention because of its inherent attractiveness and familiarity to a people whose native painting tradition, yamato-e, already emphasized seasonal themes. Nature's myriad appearances and their relationship to the cycle of human life represent a central, enduring subject in Japanese art and literature.

Byõbu depicting the flora and fauna of the four seasons were always popular in Japan. They were used both as interior decoration and as symbolic furnishings for Buddhist ceremonies. By the 18th century a new interest in examining nature's "reality" and in Western scientific information led painters to include a wider variety of animal life in their repertoire. And patrons, too, were intrigued by new subject matter, vigorous new painting styles and, inevitably, pictures that merged the old with the new in refreshing ways.
<I>Tiger Family</I>, early 1800s
This dramatic pair of screens demonstrates the use of their entire surface breadth. Ganku calculated the placements of solid rock forms and broad diagonal wave patterns along the panel fold lines to take full advantage of the byõbu 's zig-zag shape.

<I>Tiger Family</I>, early 1800s
The resulting contrasts between open areas and densely brushed, darkened forms heighten the drama of the subject-a tigress saving her family from a raging torrent.

<I>Tiger Family</I>, early 1800s
Kishi Ganku (1756-1838)
Tiger Family, early 1800s
Edo period (1615-1868)
Pair of six-fold screens; ink and color on paper
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1983.3.1
Ganku arrived in Kyoto about 1780 as a provincial painter seeking to advance his career. By 1800 his colorful, highly assured brush style had secured impressive patronage, including support from members of the imperial family. He executed many tiger paintings in the hanging scroll format, but only three byõbu compositions are currently known.


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