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Rakuchu rakugai zu (Scenes in and around the Capital)

Photo: Paul Macapia

Rakuchu rakugai zu (Scenes in and around the Capital)

17th century

In this pair of screens, seasonal outings and festivals in the old capital, Kyoto, are depicted at famous landmarks or scenic spots. The central part of the right screen features the city's most important festival, Gion Matsuri, which started as an event to appease the god of good health and end a plague in the 9th century. Today, thousands of people participate in this annual festival to pray for good health.

These screens were recently remounted with the generous support of Bank of America.

Ink, color, and gold on paper
67 7/8 x 149 3/4 in. (172.4 x 380.4 cm)
Purchased with funds from Mildred and Bryant Dunn and the Floyd A. Naramore Memorial Purchase Fund
75.38.1
Provenance: Hosomi, Izami Sakai, Japan; Purchased for Seattle Art Museum with funds donated by Mildred and Bryant Dunn, supplemented by the Floyd A. Naramore Memorial Purchase Fund, October 15, 1975
Photo: Paul Macapia
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, A Thousand Cranes: Treasures of Japanese Art, Feb. 5 - July 12, 1987.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Japan Envisions the West: 16th - 19th Century Japanese Art from the Kobe City Museum, Oct. 7, 2007 - Jan. 8, 2008.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Tabaimo: Utsutsushi Utsushi, Nov. 11, 2016 - Feb. 26, 2017.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing [on view Feb. 8, 2020 - July 11, 2021].
Published ReferencesShirahara, Yukiko, Seattle Art Museum, "Japan Envisions the West: 16th - 19th Century Japanese Art from the Kobe City Museum", 2007

Virga, Vincent and the Library of Congress, "Cartographia: Mapping Civilizations", 2007, pp. 70 - 71.

Foong, Ping, Xiaojin Wu, and Darielle Mason. "An Asian Art Museum Transformed." Orientations vol. 51, no. 3 (May/June 2020): p. 63-65, reproduced fig. 25.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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