Description
This pair of folding screens, a newly discovered masterpiece, both conforms to and deviates from the established imagery of early Europeans in Japan. The right screen features typical scenes of this Japanese genre, known as <i>nanban</i>: a black European ship docked at a Japanese port and a captain-major taking his crew to church. However, the left one is unusual in showing a white ship docking at a Chinese port town.
Even the finest motifs were painted with great care while maintaining an overall balance, highlighting the artist’s skill. These screens were probably created between 1596 and 1614 by a direct successor to the Kanō school of painting, making Kanō Takanobu (1571–1618) the most likely creator of this set.
Data source
ColBase
"ColBase: Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan" is a service that enables a multi-database search of the collections in the four national museums (To...
Contents holder/Provider
Aggregator
National Institutes for Cultural Heritage
The National Institutes for Cultural Heritage (NICH) comprise four National Museums (Tokyo National Museum, Kyoto National Museum, Nara National Museum, and Kyushu National Museum) and two National Research Institutes for Cultural Properties (Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, and Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties), as well as the International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) in Sakai City, for a total of seven institutions.
Last updated
July 20, 2026