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Houkokusai 豊国祭 | ||||||
KEY WORD : art history / paintings | ||||||
Lit. Houkoku festival. The special celebration
on the seventh anniversary of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's 豊臣秀吉 (1536-98) death,
held between the 12th and 15th days of the eighth month, 1604, at the Houkoku Jinja
豊国神社 in southwest Kyoto, where Toyotomi Hideyoshi is enshrined with
the posthumous name Houkoku Daimyoujin 豊国大明神. The theme, included in paintings
of daily life *fuuzokuga
風俗画, was painted primarily in the decade between 1604 and 1615, and served
to record this famous one-time event. The extraordinary spectacle and crowds
of the festival are depicted prominently on the large format of pairs of
folding screens. The events of the 14th day, which included a cavalcade
of warriors and priests as well as imperial court dance *bugaku
舞楽, and *nou 能 performances,
are typically presented on the right screen with the Houkoku Jinja in the
background. The climax of the festival was a massive dance held on the 15th
called the Houkoku dance or *fuuryuu
風流. This was performed by 500 people from all sections of the city who wore
outlandish costumes and danced in a large circle, and is usually depicted
on the left-hand screen together with the no longer extant Great Buddha Hall,
Daibutsuden 大仏殿, of Hideyoshi's Houkouji 方広寺. The screens at Houkoku
Jinja, painted by Kanou Naizen 狩野内善 (1570-1616), and commissioned by Hideyoshi's
captain Katagiri Katsumoto 片桐且元 (1556-1614), were donated to the shrine
in 1606. The Tokugawa 徳川 Art Museum version, attributed to Iwasa Matabee 岩佐又兵衛
(1578-1650), is identical in composition, but was probably painted about
ten years after the festival. The now lost Jinguu Choukokan 神宮徴古館 version
also featured the fuuryuu dance on the left screen but added various
other outdoor activities not connected with the festival. With the final
collapse of the Toyotomi family in 1615, paintings of the theme became exceedingly
rare. |
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(C)2001 Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System. No reproduction or republication without written permission. 掲載のテキスト・写真・イラストなど、全てのコンテンツの無断複製・転載を禁じます。 |
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