A LARGE JAPANESE KANO SCHOOL SIX-FOLD PAPER SCREEN

A LARGE JAPANESE KANO SCHOOL SIX-FOLD PAPER SCREEN, BYOBU

MOMOYAMA OR LATER, 16TH CENTURY OR LATER

Depicting a procession in a mountainous river landscape, the figures emerging from a wooden gate on the right-hand side of the composition, with a Chinese dignitary riding a horse in the centre accompanied by a retinue of ten attendants, one of them a Mongolian archer, three retainers leading a horse at the front of the procession, other men holding red standards and one with a fan made of peacock feathers, the nobleman wearing red robes adorned with scrolling details in gilt, holding a flowering branch of sakura flowers over his shoulder, with two large flowering prunus trees above, a river cascading from rocky outcrops at the back and with palm trees to the left side, the composition framed by scrolling clouds in gold leaf, approx. 177.5cm x 378cm overall.

See the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, access. nos.2006.42.1,2 for a comparable six-fold screen, one of a pair attributed to Kano Takanobu (1571-1618) and painted with a similar procession of the Chinese Emperor Wen with a retinue of ten attendants.