【Treasures of Fukuoka】No. 6 Rakuchu Rakugaizu Folding Screen

 Today, I’d like to introduce a folding screen called “Rakuchu Rakugaizu”, an important cultural asset. It is a relatively small folding screen depicting sceneries inside and outside of Kyoto, as the name suggests. (Rakuchu means, “in Kyoto” and Rakugai means “outside of Kyoto”. )

This screen is gorgeous and vibrant in its details, always surprising us with new discoveries no matter how many times we see it.

This screen is highly believed to have once been in the possession of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the screen's historical background is noteworthy. Annually, we receive a lot of lending requests for this screen from museums all over Japan. However, items that are designated as important cultural assets have limitations in their number of displays and transportation, and a lot of times we have to decline the requests. This screen is truly a “Treasure of Fukuoka”.

Right Screen

Left Screen

Firstly, let’s take a look at the vibrant picture. The enlarged section areas are found on the right hand of the screen: 

#1 Area of 五条大橋 (Gojo Ohashi Bridge)

#2 Area of 寺町通（Teramachi street）

#3 Area of 清水寺（Kiyomizu Temple）

#4 Area of 八坂神社（Yasaka Shrine）

Roughly, the right side of the drawing is south and the left side is north. The upper side of the drawing is east, depicting the Kamogawa River, which runs horizontally to the screen.

#1 The Gojo Ohashi Area

In area 1, the Gojo Ohashi area, a fund-raising sumo tournament is ongoing.

There is a tea shop close to the tournament venue. In the shop, a waitress and a tipsy customer are depicted. Their happy faces are so distinct even on a small surface - just a few square centimeters in size.

There is a shop in the western direction of the bridge. Seeing the signboard and tools, we can tell it must be a barbershop. A samurai warrior is having his hair done in the samurai style. 

The barber must have actually existed, considering that a similar barber is depicted in other Rakuchu Rakugaizu in the same Gojo Ohashi area.

#2 Area of 寺町通（Teramachi street）

There are a lot of shops depicted in the #2 Teramachi Street Area. 

A suspicious customer, who has a knife in his hand, seems to be there to have his knife sharpened, not to rob the shop. There are some grinding stones and a water bucket placed around the shop owner. The shop on the left must be an armorer's shop or a spear shop, having a lot of spears hanging on the wall.

As we go northwards, the owner of a ceramic shop is trying to hit a child with a wooden block.

What happened? Let’s look around to find out why.

Inside the ceramic shop, there is a broken white pot, which has fallen to the floor. Wait, is the black pot also broken? 

Naughty children are laughing and running around.

The poor kid, who was about to be hit by the shop owner, might have failed to escape. Or, has he been falsely accused? There is a lot of room for interpretation!

In this folding screen, the prank of naughty children, the business of shop owners, and the lives of samurai warriors were all depicted equally as part of the capital’s scenery. Every small individual, about 1 to 2 centimeters in size, were precisely depicted so as to communicate the story of their lives to the viewers. There are no heroes or heroines on this screen, but all are the main characters of their own respective lives. The screen must have been made to celebrate the peaceful Taihei era, by depicting the entire image of a capital, where people from all walks of life live happily together.

There are more than one hundred folding screens known as Rakuchu Rakugaizu today. The earliest examples were the ones produced in the early 16th century. However, the majority of them were produced much later, in the middle of the 18th century. When compared with others, we can assume that this screen was made from the end of the Momoyama period to the beginning of the Edo period. Although the screen has no signature of the painter, we can gather from the artistic details that it was made by an artist named Takanobu Kano (1571-1618). Takanobu was the second son of Eitoku Kano and the father of three brothers of Tanyu Kanou. He was the one who successfully led the Kano school troops during the time of the drastic change from the Momoyama period to the Edo period.

I wasn't able to mention in this article, but there are a lot of interesting scenes on the left-hand screen too. There are Europeans, women peddlers, street performers, parent dogs, and their puppies depicted, as well as gorgeous scenery of the hanami, or cherry blossom viewing parties at a palace and the Shishinden hall.

Vibrant Rakuchu Rakugaizu folding screens never fail to attract our attention,  having been the subject of various studies and discussions. Some of them focus on the costumes and the buildings. You might enjoy the details more if you have a magnifying glass. Enjoy the trip back in time to ancient Kyoto!

#5 Seiganji Temple

#6 Street full of artisan shops.

#7 Imperial Palace

The Rakuchu Rakugaizu folding screen (Important cultural property) has a limited number on display. Thus, it will be exhibited only until November 1st for the sake of quality. Please don’t miss it!