Scene from the Noh Play "Yoroboshi"
弱法師
Artwork · Shimomura Kanzan · 1915 · byōbu · Tokyo National Museum
A pair of six-fold screens1, shown at the second exhibition of the revived Japan Art Institute (Inten) in 19152. The museum records the screens as one object, „6曲1双“ — six folds (曲), one pair (双) —, so it holds both; its own page shows a photograph of the right screen only, ColBase, the national museums’ image database, has both3; a single screen would be counted with 隻, as „6曲1隻“4. A scene from the Noh play Yoroboshi: in the garden of Shitennō-ji, where the plum trees are in bloom, the blind youth Shuntokumaru, disowned by his father, begs and prays towards the setting sun of the equinox5. He stands on the right screen beneath an old plum tree; the left screen holds only the red sun and a branch of plum on the gold ground. Kanzan took the tree from the Garyūbai, the “reclining-dragon plum” in the Sankeien garden in Yokohama6; the face, like a Noh mask, gives the screens the mood of the Noh stage7. Important Cultural Property8. TNM, 弱法師, „6曲1双“. ↩ Ebd., „再興第２回院展の出品作“. ↩ ColBase, 弱法師. ↩ Wikipedia, 屏風, „これを接続したものが屏風の一単位、一隻（一畳、一帖）である“ · „14世紀前半には二隻（一双）を単位とする、六曲一双形式が定型となった“. ↩ TNM, 弱法師, „盲目の弱法師俊徳丸が、梅の花の咲く四天王寺の庭で、彼岸の落日に向かって拝む謡曲『弱法師』の一場面。“ · English page: “In a garden with blooming plum trees at Shitennoji Temple, a blind youth, disowned by his father, begs and offers a prayer facing the setting sun”. ↩ Ebd., „観山は三渓園内の臥龍梅の木に着想を得てこの絵を描いた“. ↩ Ebd., „能面を思わせる面貌とともに能楽的情緒を漂わせている“. ↩ Ebd., „重要文化財“. ↩ Literatur ColBase, 弱法師: 弱法師 (東京国立博物館 A-10508), in: ColBase: 国立文化財機構所蔵品統合検索システム, https://colbase.nich.go.jp/collection_items/tnm/A-10508?locale=ja (zuletzt abgerufen am 28.10.2026). TNM, 弱法師: 下村観山「弱法師」(A-10508), in: 東京国立博物館, コレクション, https://www.tnm.jp/modules/r_collection/index.php?controller=dtl&colid=A10508&lang=ja (zuletzt abgerufen am 28.10.2026). Wikipedia, 屏風: Anon., 屏風, in: ウィキペディア日本語版, https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%8F%E9%A2%A8 (zuletzt abgerufen am 28.10.2026).