Cypress Trees
{{short description|Work of Japanese art}}
{{Infobox artwork
| image_file = File:Kano Eitoku - Cypress Trees.jpg
| image_size = 540px
| title = Cypress Trees screen
| alt =
| artist = Kanō Eitoku
| year = 16th–17th century
| type = Colour on paper with gold leaf
| height_metric = 170.3
| width_metric = 460.5
| metric_unit = cm
| imperial_unit = in
| museum = Tokyo National Museum
| owner = National Treasures of Japan
}}
{{nihongo|Cypress Trees|檜図|hinoki-zu}} is a Kanō-school byōbu or folding screen attributed to the Japanese painter Kanō Eitoku (1543–1590), one of the most prominent patriarchs of the Kanō school of Japanese painting. The painting dates to the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1573–{{not a typo|1615}}). Now in Tokyo National Museum, it has been designated a National Treasure.{{cite web |url=https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/201/140 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223161408/https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/201/140 |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 December 2019 |script-title=ja:紙本金地著色桧図〈／八曲屏風〉 |trans-title=Cypress Trees, colour on paper with gold ground (eight-panel byōbu) |language=Japanese |publisher=Agency for Cultural Affairs |accessdate=21 August 2015 }}{{cite book |script-title=ja:国宝 |trans-title=National Treasures of Japan |language=Japanese, English |publisher=The Mainichi Newspapers |page=42 |volume=6 |year=1967}}
Painting
This Japanese folding screen was made from several joined panels. Screens were used to separate interiors and enclose private spaces, among other uses. This work is considered a representative work of Eitoku, who pioneered the bold "colour and gold" style. The painting is a polychrome-and-gold screen that depicts a cypress tree against the backdrop of gold-leafed clouds, and surrounded by the dark blue waters of a pond. The painting stretches across two four-panel folding screens from circa 1590; it is made of paper covered with gold leaf, depicting a cypress tree, a symbol of longevity in Japan.{{cite web |url=https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/201/140 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223161408/https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/201/140 |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 December 2019 |script-title=ja:紙本金地著色桧図〈／八曲屏風〉 |trans-title=Cypress Trees, colour on paper with gold ground (eight-panel byōbu) |language=Japanese |publisher=Agency for Cultural Affairs |accessdate=21 August 2015 }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UOOYE59AB9AC&q=cypress+tree+symbolism+Japan&pg=PA25|title=The Eyes of Power: Art and Early Tokugawa Authority|isbn=9780824821784|accessdate=21 August 2015|last1=Gerhart|first1=Karen Margaret|date=July 1999|publisher=University of Hawaii Press }}
Background
Commonly attributed to Kanō Eitoku (1543–1590), there is another theory based on a reference to a commission in {{nihongo|The Diary of Prince Toshihito|智仁観王日記}} that the painting was instead made by Eitoku's younger brother {{nihongo|Kanō Sōshū|狩野宗秀}}. The eight panels originally took the form of four painted shōji, later remounted, which helps account for some of the discontinuities in the image.{{cite web |url=http://www.emuseum.jp/detail/100144 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924000548/http://www.emuseum.jp/detail/100144 |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |title=Cypress Trees screen |publisher=National Institutes for Cultural Heritage |accessdate=21 August 2015 }} After the Meiji Restoration the paintings passed from the Katsura-no-miya to the Imperial Household and thence to the nation.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.emuseum.jp/detail/100144/000/000?mode=detail&d_lang=en&s_lang=en&class=&title=&c_e=®ion=&era=¢ury=&cptype=&owner=&pos=25&num=4 Entry at National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties of National Museums, Japan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917212636/http://www.emuseum.jp/detail/100144/000/000?mode=detail&d_lang=en&s_lang=en&class=&title=&c_e=®ion=&era=¢ury=&cptype=&owner=&pos=25&num=4 |date=2016-09-17 }}
Category:National Treasures of Japan
Category:Paintings in the Tokyo National Museum