Tosa School

We have a gorgeous group of 17th-century Japanese Tosa School paintings this week. Likely illustrating The Tale of Genji, or possibly another courtly tale, they resemble smaller examples in the Bodleian Library and Minneapolis Institute of Art (images 4 and 5). They were no doubt bound at one time and accompanied by calligraphy. The pictorial devices are fascinating: the 'blown-off roof' (fukinuki yatai) technique of exposing the interior drama within a building, and the horizontal cloud motifs in blue and gold, which were commonly used to create a sense of artifice and symbolism, and to suggest a conflation of time and space within a limited pictorial field.

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VIEW IMAGE 1: Tosa School, Japanese Scene from a Courtly Tale, Possibly Tale of Genji – 17th-century painting in colour, gofun & gold (STOCK NUMBER: KD-798).
Image 2: Tosa School, Japanese Scene from a Courtly Tale, Possibly Tale of Genji;
Image 3: Tosa School, Japanese Scene from a Courtly Tale, Possibly Tale of Genji;
Image 4: Tales of Tamamizu (Bodleian Library, Summary Catalogue 36838, 36839) Photo: © Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford;
Image 5: Hachikazuki (Minneapolis Institute of Art, acc. no. 2015.79.35.1)