Artworks

Emperor Wen, from the Mirror of Emperors (Teikan zu)

Artwork · Kanō Tan'yū · 1634 · fusuma-e · Nagoya Castle

From the wall paintings Kanō Tan'yū (1602–1674) made for the Jōrakuden of Nagoya Castle, built for the shogun Iemitsu’s stay in 1634: on fusuma of the most important room he chose the Mirror of Emperors, Chinese rulers good and bad judged by Confucian standards. Emperor Wen, informed of the cost of a tower he had ordered, rescinds the order; framed by an evergreen and white mist under gold dust. Tanyū, grandson of Eitoku and official painter to the shogunate at fifteen, set the model for two centuries of Kanō painters. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 311–312, fig. 362. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.