Artworks

Cypress

Artwork · attributed to Kanō Eitoku · 1590 · byōbu · Tokyo National Museum

The high point of Kanō Eitoku’s formulaic late blue-and-gold style, made under the heavy demands of Hideyoshi’s commissions (Azuchi Castle, Jurakudai, Osaka Castle): a single massive cypress dominates the right half, a pond and faceted rocks the left, unified by gold leaf. Probably painted in 1590 as fusuma for the mansion of Prince Toshihito and later remade into an eight-panel screen, trimmed along its short sides; whether by Eitoku or a pupil is debated. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 256–257, fig. 296. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.