Hikone folding screen

Japanese: 彦根屛風 - ひこねびょうぶ

One of the early modern period's paintings of pleasure and leisure. It was given this name because it was passed down to the Ii family of Hikone Domain (a six-panel painting; a national treasure). On an all-gold background, it depicts 15 people having fun in a pleasure quarter. These figures, with melancholic expressions, are combined in subtle correspondences based on linear and planar symmetry, creating a theatrical composition. On the left side of the painting is a six-panel ink-wash landscape painting screen, indicative of the style of the late Muromachi period. The painting-within-a-painting and the depictions of customs such as the shamisen, sugoroku, and erotic calligraphy also show the form of expression known as "koto, chess, calligraphy, and painting."

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

近世初期遊里遊楽図の一。彦根藩井伊家に伝わったためこの名がある(六曲一隻。国宝)。全面金地上に遊里に遊ぶ15人の人物が描かれている。もの憂い表情をしたこれらの人物は互いに線対称や面対称に基づく微妙な呼応関係によって組み合わされ，演劇的な構成を示す。画面左端には室町末期の様式を示す六曲一隻の水墨山水図屛風が描かれている。この画中画および三絃，双六，艶書などの風俗描写には〈琴棋書画〉見立てという表現形式もみられる。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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