A former curator at the Kyoto National Museum has proposed that a collection of paintings held by a family in northern Japan may be part of a significant set housed at the British Museum.
Yamashita Yoshiya, who examined four sliding door panels owned by the Miyakoshi family in Aomori, suggests that these artworks could complete a set that includes panels currently in the British Museum. The Miyakoshi family acquired their collection in the early 20th century.
Yamashita believes it is “highly likely” that the paintings depicting spring and summer—featuring blooming cherry trees and pheasants—correspond to the autumn and winter scenes in the British Museum’s collection. The British Museum’s panels were created by an artist from Japan’s Kano School during the early Edo period in the 17th century.
The Aomori panels’ depiction of spring and summer contrasts with the autumn and winter scenes in Britain, and Yamashita notes similarities in the flowing stream and metal handle designs that link the two collections.
The autumn and winter panels in the British Museum are believed to have originally belonged to the Tanzan Shrine in Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture. Art historians had long suspected that corresponding panels might exist.
Yamashita emphasizes the importance of these artworks, noting that they represent a transition in Japanese art from the opulent Momoyama period to the more refined style of the Edo period. He expressed relief that these paintings have survived numerous historical upheavals over the past 400 years.
The Kano School, founded by Kano Masanobu in the 15th century, was a dominant force in Japanese art for about four centuries, with Masanobu serving as the chief painter for the Ashikaga shogunate during the Muromachi period.
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