Description
<I>Senzui Byobu</I> is a type of landscape painting used in ordination ceremonies of the Shingon sect of Esoteric Buddhism. Such screens seem to have been adapted from those used in the residences of Heian nobility. <P>
The screen depicts an open landscape with a gray-bearded hermit composing poetry in his hut. He is about to be visited by a young nobleman and his attendants. The old poet is thought to be Bai Juyi, a well-known Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty. <P>The Chinese-style figures in this <I>senzui-byobu</I> are a rare example of <I>kara-e</I>, the Chinese-style painting popular during the Heian Period. The mild and emotive aspects of the figures, mountains, water, trees and rocks, however, reveal the trend towards Japanization in late-Heian-Period painting.
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