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Amusements in a Mansion

mid-17th century
Not on view
This detailed screen painting dates to a peaceful period when the warrior elite commissioned images of themselves at leisure. Hosts and their escorts enjoy amusements of every variety, including musical performances, eating and drinking, dancing, and strolling in an elaborately landscaped garden with a miniature Mount Fuji. Notably, the wealthy male hosts are joined not only by courtesans and female entertainers (as was common in genre paintings of the period) but also by young male escorts called wakashu. Many elegantly dressed figures wear kosode (the predecessor of the modern kimono) with large, colorful, asymmetrical patterns reflective of contemporary fashions popularized by woodblock-printed pattern books. The motifs on these kosode include flora and fauna as well as elements from everyday life—kemari balls, snow-flakes, and waterwheels.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 邸内遊楽図屏風
  • Title: Amusements in a Mansion
  • Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
  • Date: mid-17th century
  • Culture: Japan
  • Medium: Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper
  • Dimensions: Each: 38 3/16 in. × 8 ft. 10 11/16 in. (97 × 271 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Mary and James G. Wallach Foundation and The Vincent Astor Foundation Gifts; Harris Brisbane Dick, Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation, and Seymour Funds, 2017
  • Object Number: 2017.37.1, .2
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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