Paintings of Famous Places (Meisho-e)
A paintings of a famous site, often painted continuously across different panels of a folding screen or latticed sliding doors in the same room—a tradition passed on from the Heian to Edo period
Paintings of famous places (meisho-e) are a genre of painting in which a famous site from one of several provinces is selected and depicted across different panels of a folding screen or latticed sliding doors, etc. Often places were selected because they were associated with pillow words. Pillow words (makurakotoba) are words in Japanese poetry that, in a broad sense, have particular associations and, in a narrow sense, refer to particular places. Such paintings appeared as early as the Heian period (795–1180) as Japanese-style paintings (yamato-e), depicting Japanese landscapes and customs, and also as seasonal paintings (shiki-e). In fact, this genre became the principal theme of Japanese-style paintings. The composition of paintings of famous places features a scene of the famous site alluded to in a waka Japanese poems, along with the poem providing the theme inscribed by a skilled calligrapher on a rectangular strip of colored paper within the painting. Thus the work could be enjoyed as a painting with poetry and calligraphy all in one. The meisho-e tradition was continued in the medieval period as well, employed in works dealing with the origins and legends of temples and shrines and the biographies of eminent monks. Kamakura-period (1180–1333) works such as Saigyo monogatari emaki (Illustrated Scroll of the Story of the Monk Saigyo) and Ippen shonin eden (Illustrated Biography of the Monk Ippen) contain aspects of the style of paintings of famous places. Paintings of famous places are included in Rakuchu Rakugai zu (Scenes in and around Kyoto), completed in the late Muromachi period, as well as in medieval paintings of festivals at temples and shrines (sairei-zu). Late-Edo-period series of ukiyo-e woodblock prints such as Hiroshige Utagawa’s Tokaido gojusan tsugi (The 53 Stations of the Tokaido) and Hokusai Katsushika’s Fugaku sanjurokkei (The 36 Views of Mount Fuji) are heirs to this tradition of paintings of famous places as well.
Related People, Things and Events
Books
Related Works
Cultural Properties of Japan
Past Exhibitions
| Title | shusai | Place | open | close |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Institutions Holding Related Materials
The National Diet Library (NDL), founded in 1948, is the library which belongs to the Diet. The NDL assists the activities of the National Diet. The Library collects and conserves materials and information both from Japan and abroad, serving as a foundation of knowledge and culture and providing library services to administrative and judicial entities and Japanese citizens.
As Japan’s representative museum, Tokyo National Museum collects, preserves, displays, and researches the cultural properties of Asia with a focus on Japan, and also provides educational programs.
Kyoto National Museum collects, preserves, displays, researches and provides educational programs focusing on cultural properties from Heian- through to Edo- period Japan, when the capital was located there.
The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum is founded on November 3, 1983, in Hachioji, a thriving university town in the western suburbs of the Japanese capital. Priding itself as “a museum creating bridges around the world” to facilitate the exchange of different cultures, our museum has forged cordial relations with art museums and cultural institutes in 32 countries and territories to date. We do so by bringing the world’s finest works of art to Japan while reciprocating in kind by introducing the finest Japanese treasures to the world through special exhibitions that showcase their beauty and wonder through a unique new set of prisms and perspectives. Our museum possesses some 30,000 pieces of artworks from various periods and cultures including Japanese, Eastern and Western works, ranging from paintings, prints, photography, sculptures, ceramics and lacquer ware to armor, swords and medallions. Especially noteworthy is its outstanding collection of Western oil paintings that spans a five-hundred-year period from the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Romanticism to Impressionism and contemporary art, as well as its exceptional collection of photographic masterpieces that can give an overview of the history of photography from the birth of the photograph to the present age.
東京都台東区上野公園の東京芸術大学美術学部構内に所在。『名所江戸百景』を所蔵しています。
External Links
「現在の地図」「江戸切絵図」「キーワード」「絵師」から江戸の名所絵を探すことができる。
『江戸名所図会』は天保年間（1830－1844）に斎藤月岑（げっしん）ら父子三代が7巻20冊で刊行した江戸およびその近郊の地誌。鳥瞰図を用いた長谷川雪旦（せったん）の挿図も有名で、名所絵ともいえる。
Other materials in Japan Search
References
- 静岡県立美術館 編,静岡県立美術館
- 白石つとむ 編,小学館
- 「名所絵」の項
- 「鍬形蕙斎」の項
- 「名所絵」の項