Product Description

7390                A two-fold paper screen painted in ink and colour on a gold ground with keshi (poppies)

Japan 17^th century Edo period

Dimensions: H. 64¼” x W. 68” (162.5cm x 172.5cm)

Keshi has two meanings, ‘poppy’ and ‘erase’, as this poem by Hokushi (d.1718) so eloquently illustrates.

Kaite mitari                                         I write, erase, rewrite,

Keshitari hate wa                               erase again, and then

Keshi no hana                                    a poppy blooms.

For a pair of six fold screens, one depicting mugi (wheat) and the other poppies in the collection of the Idemitsu Museum of Art see: Nihon Byuōbu e Shūsei, Vol.7, Flowers & Birds, Four Seasons’ Plants & Flowers,1980, p.37-36 pl.18

n.b The screen has recently been remounted and has had some pigment retouching and small repairs mostly in the hinge area commensurate with age. The screen was probably slightly bigger and has lost a small part to the left and right edges.