Six-panel screen depicting Japanese festivals [172 x 374 cm]

Matsuri

Six-panel screen depicting Japanese festivals

Early Edo period, 17th century

Ink, pigments and gold leaf on paper

172 x 374 cm

The screen shows several genre scenes set during traditional Japanese festivals. The various scenes are separated, as usual in screens of this type, by resorting to the expedient of clouds in the foreground.

Amidst street vendors, stores, tea houses, and celebrating families, one can easily spot a large cherry blossom tree in the center, a koinobori (large three-dimensional carp-shaped flag) to the left, and an o–hamaori procession below. On this occasion, a procession of people carry a mikoshi, a consecrated palanquin, on their shoulders to dip it at the end of the procession into the sea or a lake before returning it to the shrine.

The clouds are made with raised dotted edges. This is a rather rare workmanship in use at the beginning of the Edo period (1615-1867).