Senzui Byobu (Landscape with Figures Screen)
Senzui Byobu (Landscape with Figures Screen)
Heian period, 11th century
Six-fold screen, color on silk
Height 146.4 cm; Width 42.7 cm (each panel)
(Kyoto National Museum)
This screen, which is one of the oldest extant objects once used in kanjo ceremonies at Shingon esoteric Buddhist temples, was kept at Toji Temple in Kyoto. The upper part of the painting shows a distant view of mountains and water, and the lower part shows, in the foreground, a thatch-roofed cottage inside which an old man is intensely engaged in composing poems. Outside the cottage a group of guests has arrived. Although the people wear Tang-style dress, the style of painting is very Japanese. All of the lines are drawn very softly, and color is only lightly applied. Characteristic yamato-e features are strongly in evidence. It is thought that the screen was not originally connected in any way with the kanjo ceremony until it was brought to Toji Temple some years after the time it was made.
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