Page 428 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

237 Among the entertainers on the right
Itinerant Entertainers screen are a man in a whiskered
blackface mask, representing the
Late seventeenth or early deity of good luck, Daikokuten (sec-
eighteenth century
Pair of six-panel screens; ink, ond panel from right), and the lively
exorcism
lion dancers performing an
color, and gold on paper dance of the New Year (see detail
5
Each 60 x 206 (23 /s x 8iVs)
includes
Preservation Committee of Oba p. 371). The right screen also priests
a wide variety of itinerant
Local Governor's Office, Tokyo
and nuns: a street preacher giving a
sermon under an umbrella (second
• Through breaks in billowing clouds panel), a priest with a picture of a
of gold we peer into lively scenes of bronze temple bell collecting alms
street performers, religious solicitors, 427
and ambulant entertainers of every (fifth panel), and a contingent of
six priests
chanting homage to the
variety, some still on the road, others Buddha's name (leftmost panel).
pausing at entrances to private houses
where they might collect a coin or The left screen similarly captures
two for their efforts. Despite the pious an array of religious and secular per-
purport of the chanters and dancers, formers, including jugglers and pup-
they sought to induce pleasure peteers, musicians and dancers. The
as much as to convert souls, and like men in flamboyant hats doing a lively
performers on street corners or jig are taking part in a folk dance
subways of our own day, they relied to pray for a good harvest (see detail
on donations from spectators to facing page). The blind men and
make ends meet. Whatever their women with canes are itinerant story-
motives, collectively their presence tellers or lute players (lower section
added much to the vibrant drama of fourth and fifth panels), a reminder
of daily life in urban centers of early that blind chanters played a crucial
modern Japan. role in the preservation of Japanese
national literature and legend until
Screens of this type, as much docu- literacy became widespread in the
mentary as aesthetic in their intent,
late Edo period. JTC
hark back to conventionalized genre
paintings of annual festivals (nenjü
gyôjie), which depicted the court
ceremonies performed regularly each
year. Though many of the activities
shown here could take place at any
time of year, the artist attempted to
give some sense of seasonal progres-
sion. For instance, the scene of comic
dialogue (manzai) performers in the
upper right corner of the right screen
is associated with the New Year's
season. The scene of a poor man
collecting old temple shrine charms
in the lower left corner of the left
screen took place at year's end.

237 (detail)