Beautiful Byobu…Japanese Screens at The Nezu Museum and at Home

In honor of the just opened exhibit Irises and Eight Bridges: Masterpieces by Kōrin from the Nezu Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I have gathered some images of Japanese byobu (screens) in Western interiors. If you are looking for more details on these extraordinary screens, take a look at a post I wrote last year, Ogata Korin’s Iris Masterpieces Reunion Postponed, when the exhibition was originally supposed to have taken place. I didn’t think there was any reason to recreate the wheel, so this post is going to be pure eye candy.

Byobu literally means “wind wall” which gives a clear sense of their original purpose – to block drafts. Over time their mobility and flexibility allowed them to be used almost anywhere, to block unsightly objects or repurpose a room, as well as serving as beautiful backdrops for tea ceremony and ikebana. Ornate screens and those using gold and silver leaf helped proclaim the status of their owner. Like much of Japanese artwork, screens originated in China but were slowly but surely domesticated and changed in Japan, with a high point being the introduction of paper hinges, allowing the artist a single large canvas to create an image, rather than completely divided panels.

Today, screens are more likely to be hung on the wall rather than stood on the floor and like blue & white porcelain, they work in almost any design style. Here John Saladino places a simple 2 panel screen with other traditional Japanese items – an incredible mon covered lacquer trunk and altar candlesticks.

In a completely contemporary room with a strong Japanese vibe (note the shoji screens) Jonathan Straley hangs an Edo period byobu above the bed.

Meg Braff uses an ukiyo-e style screen depicting everyday business in this room filled with modern casual Chinoiserie details.

In Renny Renolds and Jack Staub‘s dining room we also have some modern Asian touches like the quirky bamboo chandelier and woven chairs.

I adore Bruce Shostak‘s little banquet with its golden screen highlighted by moody colors.

Changing gears entirely, there are other byobu made with squares of silver leaf that tend to be very simple, sometime even entirely plain. This dining room by Windsor Smith positively glows with its fabric covered walls and silver screen.

Michael Smith uses a simple silver-leafed screen as a highlight behind his sofa, placed on the floor and used as a backdrop. I love that he has layered a small painting on top of it.

Jerry Jacobs uses a similar screen in a similar fashion in this San Francisco living room.

Caitlin Creer uses a Japanese screen on the wall behind her bed. While it functions to highlight the headboard and lamps, its real purpose in being there is to block an off-center and unsightly window. For more on her bedroom, click here.

This entry hall by Mallory Marshall and James Light uses a giant peacock screen in much the way it might have been used originally.

Here it is yet again, demonstrating its decorative power. I assume the stylist and the photographer couldn’t resist re-using it or it is blocking something they would rather not have in the photo.

Another John Saladino vignette with an amazing Edo period screen, this time mixed in with European antiques. For more of this amazing house, click here.

The placement of a screen on the wall allows a designer to alter the volume of the space, whether it be to enlarge it or make it smaller. This screen may not be Japanese, but I had to include it for its extraordinary placement in antique dealer Peter Hinwood’s giant high-ceilinged room. It unifies a disparate set of objects hung gallery style below and brings the ceiling down to make the room cozier. This is cluttered at its best!

Here stylist Peter Frank has hung not a Japanese screen but instead a Korean one, working in a similar but opposite fashion, pushing up a low ceiling.

This golden screen is such a focal point in this eclectic room by Lazaro Rosa-Violan you almost can’t look at anything else as it pulls your eye back and upwards. As a result, the volume of the space is what is emphasized.

Volume in Erin Fetherston’s loft bedroom is emphasized in the reverse, with the screen low down on the floor, the empty space above it is what you notice most.

I can’t say it enough, if you are in Japan over this next month, make the effort to get to the Nezu Museum as this exhibit should not be missed and the exhibit is only running until May 20. I don’t know if these National Treasures are likely to be reunited again anytime soon.

And speaking of those bridges, a few readers have had trouble understanding their depiction on the screens. Korin has painted them with that flattened perspective unique to Japanese art. I think this live example helps make it clear.

Let me know what you think of the exhibit!

Related Posts:
Ogata Korin’s Iris Masterpieces Reunion Postponed

Image credits: 1. & 12, House & Garden June 1998, photo credit: William Waldron, 2. via Jonathan Straley, photo credit: Matthew Millman, 3. House Beautiful June 2007, photo credit: Simon Upton, 4. Elle Decor March 2008, photo credit: William Waldron, 5. New York Spaces 12-1-11, 6. House Beautiful December 2010, photo credit: Victoria Pearson, 7. Metroplitan Home?, date unknown, 8. via Jerry Jacobs Design, 9. via Caitlin Creer Interiors, 10-11. House Beautiful January 1999, photo credit: William Waldron, 13. via Stylebeat, from Rooms to Inspire in the City by Anne Kelly, photo credit: Tim Street-Porter, 14. House Beautiful October 201o, photo credit: William Abranowicz, 15. via Lazaro Rosa-Violan, 16. Vogue May 2011, photo credit: Claiborne Swanson Frank

Apr 25, 2012 By tokyojinja in Artist Spotlight, Interior Design 8 Comments Tags: byobu, Iris, Japanese art, Japanese screens, Nezu Museum, Ogata Korin, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ogata Korin’s Iris Masterpieces Reunion Postponed

Referring to Ogata Korin’s Irises in a post last week reminded me that an important early 18th century reunion was due to take place this month – the long-awaited exhibition of the two famous Korin pairs of gold folding screens – the Eight-Planked Bridges pair from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and the Japanese National Treasure Irises, here in Tokyo at the Nezu Museum. Without really considering current events, last week I went to the Nezu and was disappointed to discover it was not to be. As the Nezu’s website states, “In deference to the tragic circumstances of the major earthquake of March 11 and the immediate challenges ahead for our city and our nation, the Nezu and its partners have decided it would be best to reschedule the very important Kōrin Exhibition to Spring 2012.” This sounds like a joint decision, but forgive me if my instincts tell me that the Met must have backed out or perhaps that the insurance carriers wouldn’t allow it. That being said, one can’t blame them for not wanting to part with such a treasure in such unclear times.

As the photos cannot in any way do justice to these works, luckily, the Nezu has its Irises on seasonal display anyway. In typical Japanese style, remember, when the irises are gone, the screens will be too, so I encourage anyone local to run over to the museum. Unfortunately, the Met does not have its pair on display, perhaps for no other reason than they expected them to be in Japan right now. I have added a photo I took of the Irises for those who can’t visit the Nezu, as a counterpoint to the very flat studio photos above.

These irises represent more than just a pretty view of nature. These are a scene from The Tales of Ise, distilled to its purest form. In this particular story, the hero is travelling east from Kyoto when he arrives in Yatsuhashi (Eight-Bridges) in Mikawa province, a place famous for its irises. The beauty of the irises coupled with his homesickness for his wife encourages him to compose a poem of longing and beauty:

I have a beloved wife,
Familiar as the skirt
Of a well-worn robe,
And so this distant journeying
Fills my heart with grief.

You can see this motif in other places in Japanese art and irises themselves have become symbolic of the story. Also in the Nezu Museum is this amazing scroll of poems and illustrated fans. Here you can see the iris and eight-planked bridge theme repeated. This vignette style of painting, most often glimpsed in a fan shape, is one of my favorite devices in Japanese art.

And while we are on the subject of iconic iris paintings, I couldn’t help but add these. I have written elsewhere about the influence of Japanese art on Vincent Van Gogh, here is yet another example.

While not possible that Van Gogh could have seen the actual Korin screens, they were reproduced in woodblock print form in the early 19th century in the Korin Hyakuzu Kohen: The Hundred Designs by Korin, which was collected and therefore available in Europe.

For the real thing, check out the beautiful gardens behind the Nezu Museum…

…or later in the month, the iris garden at the Meiji Shrine.

Kinda calling for a post on blues and purples, don’t you think?
Poem source credit: Ogata Korin: Eight-Planked Bridge (Yatsuhashi) (53.7.1-2) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Image Credits: 1-2. Nezu Museum, 3-4 & 8. me, 5-6. Irises, 1889, collection of The Getty Museum and Irises, 1890, collection of the RijksmuseumVincent Van Gogh via ibiblio.org, 7. Korin Hyakuzu Kohen via Irises in the Garden by Jennifer Helvey, 9. L. Glovins

May 2, 2011 By tokyojinja in Artist Spotlight 3 Comments Tags: byobu, Iris, Nezu Museum, Ogata Korin, screen, Vincent Van Gogh

R. P. Miller…New Japanese Inspired Fabrics From Rodman Primack Debut at Hollywood at Home

Los Angelinos, take note. Peter Dunham’s Hollywood at Home, his one stop shop for some of the hottest hand-printed textile lines around (Carolina Irving, Lisa Fine, John Robshaw, Martyn Lawrence-Bullard and his own), custom furniture and vintage finds has opened a second branch, also on La Cienega Boulevard.

Of even bigger news in my book, Hollywood at Home will be carrying Rodman Primack’s new line of Japanese inspired fabrics, hand-printed on Belgian linen, simply called R.P. Miller. Since childhood, Primack has been influenced by his grandparents extensive collection of Japanese art and antiques gathered on their travels. Based on 18th and 19th century ukiyo-e (woodblock prints), his new textiles are modern interpretations of traditional patterns. “In the fabrics various themes and details have been abstracted to create something new that is meant to evoke, not literally replicate.” I am still waiting on some live samples, but the showroom did send me some close-up photos.

You can see the four main patterns in the indigo blue colorway stacked up here. The one I find particularly interesting is the second one down, hard to see in just this small bit. It is an expanded and simplified rendering of the angled and foreshortened perspective seen in the depiction of wooden fences, bridges and walkways in woodblock prints and folding screens (byobu).

Here you can see it much better on the sofa in this photo from the showroom via Stylebeat. A pattern like this works best for a large-scale project with a horizontal view like this.

Here ia a 17th century masterpiece by Ogata Korin in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum that has just the kind of bridge and perspective I was referring to.

And again, in a woodblock print by Kitao Shigemasa, you can even see the grain of the wood on the floorboards. For more on Japanese perspective and its influence on Western art, see here and here (and make sure to compare this print to Whistler’s Caprice in Purple and Gold shown there).

It would have been a perfect lead-in for the next fabric if the motif on the doorway in the print above had been asanoha (hemp) instead of sayagata (key fret), as the classic hemp pattern is the boldest of the graphic prints in the line. It comes in numerous colors including the red, grey, green and indigo shown here. The truth is, the hemp motif needs its own post one of these days!

The sweetest pattern is this petals in the river motif, shown in red below and blue up at the top.

I was trying to find a yukata (cotton kimono) photo in my files with a similar pattern, as I know I have seen them, but the best I could come up with was this grass pattern. But it could easily be part of his collection, don’t you think? You can see why I am always wishing the fabrics of traditional Japanese dress were upholstery weight!