Byobu: The Grandeur of Japanese Screens

Friday, February 7, 2014 – Sunday, July 6, 2014

Image: Kyoto Kano School, Tale of Genji, Japanese, Edo period, ca. 1625–50. Right screen from a pair of six-panel folding screens: ink, color, and gold leaf on gold-flecked paper. Yale University Art Gallery, Edward H. Dunlap, B.A. 1934, Fund

Japanese folding screens, or byobu, were originally constructed to mark spatial divisions within a room. Often monumental in scale and sumptuously decorated, byobu have been created by some of Japan’s greatest artists. This exhibition features screens from the 16th century to the present, representing diverse themes painted by most of the dominant schools of the period, particularly from the 17th and 18th centuries. Byobu: The Grandeur of Japanese Screens includes the Gallery’s finest screens as well as works on loan from private collections, offering a truly comprehensive display of this opulent Japanese aesthetic. The exhibition is presented in three successive installations.

With opulent colors and glittering gold, the first installation, Tales and Poems in Byobu, presents the subjects of indigenous Japanese waka poems and of fictional and historical tales. Nearly all made during the seventeenth century, at the height of byobu production, the byobu on display embody the two central tenets of Japanese aesthetics, visually contrasting the sumptuous with the subdued.

The second installation, Brush and Ink in Byobu, features the dynamic power of ink when applied by the skilled brush of artists trained in calligraphy. From the early seventeenth to the nineteenth century, artists demonstrated their inexhaustible skills and virtuosity. Subject matter varies widely—from preening chickens and frolicking horses to mythical dragons to contemplative bamboo groves bathed in moonlight.

The third and final installation, Nature and Celebration in Byobu, celebrates both the beauty of nature and the festivities of the Japanese people. The commissions for byobu of this group came from high-ranking samurai lords and nouveau riche merchants, from literati intellectuals and communities of shrine and temple supporters. The most recent work on view, a semi-abstract folding screen from 2004, was made for the tea ceremony, as byobu have been for hundreds of years, demonstrating that the traditional art and cultural of Japan have continued unbroken and thrive in new and exciting ways.

Yale University Art Gallery Exhibition Website

Exhibition Checklists:

• Tales and Poems in Byobu: The Grandeur of Japanese Screens: February 7–March 23, 2014
• Brush and Ink in Byobu: The Grandeur of Japanese Screens: March 25–May 11, 2014
• Nature and Celebration in Byobu: The Grandeur of Japanese Screens: May 13–July 6, 2014

Kuroda, Taizō. Worlds seen and imagined: Japanese screens from the Idemitsu Museum of Arts. New York: Asia Society Galleries; Abbeville Press, 1995.

McKelway, Matthew P. Capitalscapes: folding screens and political imagination in late medieval Kyoto. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2006.

Murasaki, Shikibu. The Tale of Genji / by Lady Murasaki. Translated from the Japanese by Arthur Waley. London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1925.

Murase, Miyeko. Byōbu: Japanese screens from New York collections. New York: Asia Society, 1971.

Sorensen, Joseph T. Optical allusions: screens, paintings, and poetry in classical Japan (ca. 800-1200). Leiden; Boston : Brill, 2012.

The Tale of the Heike / translated by Royall Tyler. New York : Viking, 2012.

Webb, Glenn Taylor. Japanese scholarship behind Momoyama painting and trends in Japanese painting ca. 1500-1700: as seen in the light of a stylistic reexamination of the nature of Chinese influence on Kano painters and some of their contemporaries. Chicago: University of Chicago Library, 1970.

Weigl, Gail Capitol. Foundations of a Momoyama theme: birds and flowers of the four seasons in a landscape. PhD diss. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International, 1980.