jitsugetsu sansui-zu　日月山水図

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Also jitsugetsu-zu 日月図. A pictorial subject that combines the motifs of the sun and moon in landscapes of the four seasons. Documentary references or extant examples of the subject are rare. Usually, the subject appeared in the folding screen *byoubu 屏風 format. In a pair of folding screens spring and summer landscape is depicted with a golden sun on the right , while a scene of autumn and winter is painted with a silver moon, either full or crescent, on the left screen. Gold and silver leaf *haku 箔 or thin plates itakane 板金 are used to render the sun and moon. Although landscapes depicted in the four seasons are in the tradition of *yamato-e やまと絵 (see *shiki-e 四季絵) , the unusual contrast of the sun and the moon in one set of paintings is thought by some scholars to have symbolic meaning and to have been adopted from the iconic renderings of Shinto shrines depicted as a type of *mandara 曼荼羅 (see *Shintou bijutsu 神道美術). Others believe the juxtaposition is purely decorative and probably derives from works of lacquer or other crafts. The oldest extant example is the pair of six-fold screens at Kongouji 金剛寺 (15c) in Osaka, which have long been used only during the esoteric Buddhist ceremony known as kanjou 潅頂 ceremony (see *byoubu-e 屏風絵). Another well-known example is the pair of screens in the Tokyo National Museum. The pair was probably not original but from two different sets. They are important as rare examples of screen painting which predate the flourishing of large scale painting in the Momoyama period. See *shouhekiga 障壁画.

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