Page 181 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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91 • The Confucian painting theme of home through a Japanese manner of
Kusumi Morikage (c. 1620-0.1690) rice cultivation emphasizes the landscape rendering and personally
Rice Cultivation in the Four Seasons importance of the farmer, who feeds observed narrative details.
Pair of six-panel screens; the nation and struggles for the good Starting on the left screen, seeds are
ink and light color on paper of all. Rice cultivation scenes were soaked in a stream, beyond which a
Each 151 x 347 (5972 x 136 Vs) considered appropriate for decoration farmer plows the fields where the
Kyoto National Museum of public rooms in a samurai's house seeds will sprout. After sprouting, the
Important Cultural Property or castle, or as a didactic theme for seedlings are transplanted into wet
meeting rooms in temples. From the paddies (in the right two panels) by
late Muromachi to the Edo period this women who move to dengaku music
subject was usually painted in a Chi- performed by the village males. At the
nese-based style. Kusumi Morikage left end of the right screen the grain
created a number of such paintings is harvested and then hauled across
in a Chinese manner before rendering the river on horseback to the village.
this one, which strips the theme of
its foreign connotation and brings it