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Perfectly/ Imperfect A Masterpiece by Hasegawa Tōji

Introduction

My fascination with Japanese folding screens (byōbu) began more than forty years ago when I acquired my first byōbu: a simple yet compelling ink painting of an ox beneath a gnarled plum tree by Kanō Tsunenobu (1636–1713). What began as a modest acquisition soon developed into a lifelong passion for one of Japan’s most iconic art forms. After more than four decades specialising in these remarkable works of art, my enthusiasm for them remains undiminished. Over the years, I have had the privilege of handling numerous examples produced by some of Japan’s most important painting traditions, including the Kanō, Tosa, Hasegawa and Rimpa schools.

This pursuit has taken me on countless journeys to Japan in search of treasure and has allowed me to develop long-standing relationships with dealers and collectors whose knowledge and expertise have been invaluable. I was also very fortunate to benefit from the guidance of the late Leighton Longhi of New York, USA, whose advice and encouragement were instrumental in my early understanding of the timeless beauty of Japanese folding screens.

During these decades, I have studied and handled thousands of screens. Yet this is the first occasion on which I have encountered what appears to be one of the very few surviving examples preserved in almost entirely original condition. Japanese screens are typically remounted approximately every hundred years as adhesives deteriorate and structural elements weaken. For this reason, it is extremely rare to find a pair dating from the late sixteenth to early seventeenth century that have remained in such a wonderful state of preservation after more than four hundred years.

The present pair is even more remarkable in that they represent one of only two known surviving examples by the accomplished yet little-known painter Hasegawa Tōji. The screens are lavishly executed and display unusual technical features, particularly in the treatment of the clouds in gold leaf, whose scalloped edges are enhanced with subtle copper-toned oxidisation in the raised gofun (powdered shell). The interior backing papers also present a noteworthy detail. In most historical screens, the structural layers beneath the painted surface consist of recycled sheets, often old accounting records covered in calligraphy. In this pair, however, the backing papers contain no calligraphy whatsoever, suggesting that fresh paper was used throughout the construction. Such a choice may be understood as reflecting a high degree of material control and careful planning in the making of these screens, contributing to the impression of a commission of particular refinement.

Screens of this quality would only have been available to the higher echelons of Japanese society and would have been executed with meticulous attention and care at every stage of their production. Traditionally, scholars have assessed the date of Japanese paintings through close comparison of style and composition, and this time-honoured approach remains fundamental to the field. At the same time, modern scientific techniques now offer valuable opportunities to support and further clarify such assessments.

With this in mind, I felt it would be fascinating to see what results could be achieved from Carbon-14 analysis. This is the first time I have carried out such a test on material from a Japanese screen and the results were astonishing as well as completely coherent with my hopes and expectations. Very small samples were taken from the silk border and the backing paper, and sent to the laboratory. The textile produced a result indicating that it dated to the 15th century AD (1434 –1476 AD with a probability of 95.4%) and the paper to the 16th/17th century AD (1496–1602 AD with a probability of 76.2%). To this day, it is common practice to use old silk for the border when mounting screens, and it is therefore no surprise that an ‘antique’ silk (probably considered rare and precious) would be used in such a high-quality production. The date of circa 1600 for the paper places this pair just at the end of the Momoyama period and the beginning of the Edo period, a dating perfectly consistent with the only other known pair of screens by the same artist, Bamboo and Wisteria, now in the collection of the Osaka City Museum, Japan.

The last two panels of the left-hand screen show an area of loss, most probably caused by a rodent. Valuable objects were traditionally stored in a kura, a thick-walled, fireproof storehouse separate from the main residence, where artworks, documents and valuable commodities such as rice were kept. These enclosed storage environments could occasionally be affected by rodent activity especially when the stored artworks were left untouched for long periods. Rather than detracting from the work, this may be understood as part of the screens’ history, lending them an added sense of authenticity. For this reason, I felt it important to record this pair of screens exactly as they survive today, preserved in their original yet slightly imperfect state and ready for carefully considered conservation if desired. It is therefore with great pleasure that I present this rare and exceptional pair of folding screens by Hasegawa Tōji, the newly discovered master of the Hasegawa school.

Gregg Baker

Hasegawa Tōji, Wisteria and Bush-clover

A pair of six-fold screens; ink, colour, gold leaf and silver on paper Japan, early seventeenth century, Momoyama–Edo period

Brilliantly coloured folding screens executed on gold-leaf grounds constitute one of the defining artistic forms of the Momoyama (1573-1615) and early Edo period (1615-1868). Produced in considerable numbers by painting workshops active during the decades surrounding political unification, such works functioned simultaneously as architectural ornament, markers of elite status and instruments of ceremonial display. Their broad surfaces, luminous materials and emphatic compositions were intended to produce an immediate visual impact within the expansive interiors of castles, temples and aristocratic residences. The present pair of six-fold screens belong to this context of highly refined decorative production associated with the Hasegawa School in the early 17th century. The righthand screen depicts wisteria (fuji) cascading from a bamboo trellis beside an azure river, while the left-hand screen

presents bush clover (hagi) rising behind a bamboo fence beneath a silver moon partially obscured by clouds. Both screens are executed against richly varied gold-leaf grounds animated by bands of mist and scattered flecks of cut gold. The wisteria screen is signed ‘Hasegawa Tōji hitsu’ (‘brushed by Hasegawa Tōji’) and both screens are sealed ‘Tōji’.

The juxtaposition of spring and autumn motifs follows a long-established convention in Japanese painting and poetry. Wisteria, associated with late spring, has occupied an important position within courtly visual culture since the Heian period (794-1185). Due to its phonetic link with the flourishing Fujiwara clan, fuji came to signify aristocratic refinement and cultivated elegance. In The Pillow Book (c.1002) written by the court lady Sei Shōnagon (c.966-c.1025), wisteria is described as one of the ‘things that are exquisite’, praised for the beauty of its gracefully cascading clusters of flowers and rich, elegant colour. Furthermore, the plant’s vine-like growth, entwining and extending over time, has come to symbolise enduring connections and lasting prosperity. Wisteria, with its delicate yet dignified presence, has been admired and cherished throughout history. Bush clover, by contrast, is one of the celebrated aki no nanakusa (‘seven grasses of autumn’) and occupies an equally significant place in Japanese literary culture. It belongs to the 160 plants mentioned in the Manyōshū (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves), the earliest known anthology of Japanese poetry (comprising poems from the early 7th to mid-8th centuries), bush clover is the most frequently referred to, appearing in no less than 141 poems. Its prominence in poetry surpasses even that of the plum and cherry blossoms, reflecting its deep connection to Japanese culture and literature. In The Pillow Book, Sei Shōnagon captures the beauty of bush clover with

the following passage ‘The flowers of the grasses... the hagi, with its deeply coloured branches, gracefully blooming, drenched in morning dew, its tender stems gently sprawling outward…’. Not only featured in literature, bush clover has also been depicted in numerous paintings and decorative arts, continuing to hold significant cultural and aesthetic presence in Japanese art. It may also be noteworthy that Japan is home to the greatest variety of hagi species in the world. Together with a full moon, which also symbolises the autumn, this screen quintessentially represents the beauty of this season. Although little documentary evidence survives concerning Hasegawa Tōji (長谷川等二), the painter’s association with the Hasegawa School appears secure. The use of the character 等 (Tō) recalls naming practices within the workshop of Hasegawa Tōhaku (1539-1610), founder of the school. One of the most influential painters of the late Momoyama period, Tōhaku and his workshop, though comparatively small, often competed with Kanō Eitoku (1543-1590), head of the vast Kanō School, for the patronage of one of the main unifiers of Japan, the daimyō Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598). Following Eitoku’s death in 1590, Tōhaku stood alone as the greatest living master of his time. Chosen by Hideyoshi, the Hasegawa School gained power and popularity, enabling the production of some of the finest and most admired paintings of the period. Hasegawa Tōhaku is known to have had sons and workshop assistants (though the relationship is not always clear), called Tōgo (Sōtaku), Tōyo, and Tōjū (Sakon), who used the same character等 (Tō) in their names. Tōji does not number among those mentioned in later accounts of Tōhaku and his followers, and little is known about him beyond the existence of another pair of screens. The only other known work securely attributable to him is a pair of screens entitled Bamboo and Wisteria, formerly in the

collection of the politician and lawyer Kiyoomi Taman and now preserved in the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, Japan. The Osaka screens, completely covered in gold leaf, feature only a few vines of wisteria and their bamboo stalks are painted in monochrome ink, making it challenging to compare them to the present work. Nevertheless, the bamboo stalks in the Osaka screens closely resemble Tōhaku’s treatment of the same subject in Cranes and Bamboo (Idemitsu Museum, Tokyo), a work inspired by the artist’s encounter with paintings by the Southern Song dynasty monk-painter Muqi (c.1210-1269).

Scholarly discussion of Tōji has remained limited, though the eminent art historian Yamane Yūzō identified the Osaka pair as a Hasegawa School work from the first half of the 17th century and published his findings in a 1949 edition of Kokka (the premier Japanese journal on East Asian art, history, and architecture renowned for featuring academic scholarship). More recently, in the 2017-2018 exhibition The Japanese Renaissance. Nature in painted screens from the 15th to the 17th centuries, held at the Uffizi Galleries, Florence, Italy, the curator having analysed the painting style, writes that Tōji was one of Tōhaku’s pupils despite the lack of written records. The present pair reveals numerous compositional and stylistic affinities with established Hasegawa School works. The wisteria screen recalls Hasegawa Sōen’s (active 16th century) Wisteria and Oxherds at Seianji temple, Ōtsu, particularly in the arrangement of the trellis and the broad, horizontally extending leaves. The bush-clover screen similarly invites comparison with Bush Clover and Eulalia at Shōkokuji temple, Kyoto where floral motifs emerge against uninterrupted gold-leaf surfaces. Yet the present pair departs from these precedents through increasingly elaborate atmospheric effects and more complex manipulations of the pictorial surface.

Particularly striking is the careful opposition established between the two screens. The descending movement of the wisteria vines is answered by the upward growth of the bush clover, while the placement of cloud forms and compositional densities reinforces a subtle visual inversion across the pair. Vertical rhythms dominate the wisteria screen through the hanging blossoms and upright bamboo supports, producing an atmosphere of restraint and controlled elegance. By contrast, the bush clover spreads laterally across the surface, animated by angled fencing and densely clustered blossoms that generate a more expansive and vigorous movement.

The handling of gold leaf further distinguishes the pair. Rather than relying upon the regular grid-like application frequently encountered in earlier decorative screens, Tōji employs irregularly cut fragments, dense gold sprinkles,

and layered bands of mist that dissolve the pictorial ground into a shimmering atmospheric field. These effects not only heighten the decorative brilliance of the screens but also draw attention to the material processes through which such surfaces were constructed. Works such as Wisteria and Bush Clover reflect broader developments within painting of the late Momoyama and early Edo period. Earlier screen compositions often assembled motifs from all four seasons within a single pictorial field. Between 1592-1593, Toyotomi began the construction of Shōunji temple, Kyoto, as a memorial for his deceased three-year-old son Tsurumatsu. Hasegawa Tōhaku was given the honour of decorating the interior fusuma (sliding doors) and can be credited with initiating an approach to designs which focused on single floral motifs.

Now preserved in the Chishakuin temple, Kyoto, these sliding panels devote broad surfaces to a reduced range of motifs with specific seasonal associations: most renowned of these are the panels of pines, maple trees and autumn flowers by Tōhaku and cherry trees by his son Kyūzō. Tōhaku would do the same in monochromatic ink focusing on only pine trees in his masterpiece, Pines in Mist (Tokyo National Museum). Folding screen paintings probably followed suit but came with the key advantage that unlike architecturally specific sliding panels, they are flexible and portable. Wisteria and Bush Clover would probably have featured on special occasions such as receiving important guests or during festivals which occurred during the relevant seasons. 26

Within this context, Wisteria and Bush Clover may be understood not simply as a decorative object but as a highly sophisticated accessory designed to impress, leading the viewer to understand the cultural and financial status of those seated before them. While the identity of Hasegawa Tōji remains somewhat obscure, the present pair of screens nevertheless reveals a painter of exceptional sensitivity to both the material possibilities of screen painting and the compositional innovations associated with the Hasegawa School. Through their refined handling of floral forms, sumptuous gold-leaf surfaces, and close visual dialogue with works by Hasegawa Tōhaku and his followers, Wisteria and Bush Clover stand as compelling evidence of the continued vitality and evolution of the Hasegawa School in the decades surrounding the transition from the Momoyama to the Edo period.

References & RCD test results Signed: Hasegawa Tōji hitsu (brushed by Hasegawa Tōji) on a right screen and sealed Tōji on both screens Japan, early 17th century, Momoyama-Edo period Dimensions: H. 166cm x W. 372cm (65¼” x 146½”) each Provenance: Private collection, Japan RCD test result: "7859_145790A Paper Screen C14 report" 31

Further information along with illustrations of the only other known pair of screens by Hasegawa Tōji, Bamboo and Wisteria, can be found in the following publications: ◊ Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts ed., Masterpieces from the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, (Osaka, 1986), p.91, no. 81. ◊ Kokka journal, vol. 687, June 1949, p. 164; ◊ Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan, ed., Il Rinascimento giapponese: La natura nei dipinti su paravento dal XV al XVII secolo [The Japanese Renaissance: Nature in Screen Paintings from the 15th to the 17th Centuries], exhibition catalogue, Uffizi Galleries, Florence, 2017, pp112-113, 148, no.29.

◊ Ishikawa Nanao Art Museum ed., 2019 Spring Special Exhibition, Hasegawa Tohaku, Large Paintings of Screens and Fusuma, exhibition catalogue, (Ishikawa, 2019), pp6667, 81, no. 20. For other paintings depicting wisteria by Hasegawa School artists, see: ◊ Tokyo National Museum and Kyoto National Museum eds., Hasegawa Tohaku: 400th Memorial Retrospective, (Tokyo, 2010), pp80-185, 261-262, no.16. ◊ A pair of six-fold screens ‘Horses at pasture’ by Hasegawa Tōhaku, end of 16th century, Momoyama period, Tokyo National Museum (ref. no. A-56), Important Cultural Property). 32

◊ A six-fold screen ‘The Imperial Visit to Ōhara’ by Hasegawa Kyūzō (1568–93), end of 16th century, Momoyama period, Tokyo National Museum (ref. no. A-1273).

Hasegawa Sōen (date unknown), a pupil of Hasegawa Tōhaku, is also known to have produced a pair of six-fold screens depicting oxen at pasture on the right screen and wisteria on a bamboo trellis on the left screen, which is housed in Seianji temple, Shiga prefecture. For comparable paintings of bush clover by the Hasegawa School artists, see: ◊ Tokyo National Museum and Kyoto National Museum eds., Hasegawa Tohaku: 400th Memorial Retrospective, (Tokyo, 2010), pp148-151, 277, no.44. ◊ Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan, ed., Il Rinascimento giapponese: La natura nei dipinti su paravento dal XV al XVII secolo [The Japanese Renaissance: Nature in Screen Paintings from the 15th to the 17th Centuries], exhibition catalogue Uffizi Galleries, Florence, 2017, pp104-105, 145, no.24.

◊ A pair of six-fold screens with bush clover and pampas grass by Hasegawa Tōhaku, end of 16th century to early 17th century, Momoyama period, Shōkokuji temple, Kyoto. ◊ Tokyo National Museum and Kyoto National Museum eds., R 145790A Page 5 / 8 Hasegawa Tohaku: 400th Memorial Retrospective, (Tokyo, Dating of the sample E1 (paper) 2010), p277, illustration 35. ◊ Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan, ed., Il Rinascimento  C13 (‰) giapponese: La natura nei dipinti su paravento dal XV al 96.07 ± 0.25 - 25.71 XVII secolo [The Japanese Renaissance: Nature in Screen 320 ± 20 from the 15th - 17th Centuries], exhibition cataPaintings logue Uffizi Galleries, Florence, 2017, pp111, 147, no.28.

S125064 – E1

pMC

Paper, alcali residue C14 age (BP) Calibrated intervals of date (BC / AD)

at 1  (probability of 68.3%)

at 2  (probability of 95.4 %)

1496 – 1602 AD (76.2%) ◊ (10.5%) A six-fold (45.4%) 1612screen – 1642 AD with (19.2%) bush clover and pampas grass (12.4%) by Hasegawa Sōtaku (d.1611, Tōhaku’s second son), Nanzenji from OxCaltemple. v4.4.4 and Intcal 20 [5, 6]

1519 – 1531 AD 1537 – 1587 AD 1622 – 1636 AD

R 145790A Page 6 / 8

Radiocarbon Age [BP]

Dating of the sample E2 (textile)

S125064 – E2

pMC

Textile, alcali residue

94.83 ± 0.24

C14 age (BP)

Calibrated intervals of date (BC / AD)

430 ± 20

Radiocarbon dating of the sample E1 (paper). The obtained age indicates that the  C13 (‰)material is ancient. From the calibrated results, we can determine that it most pro- 23.85 bably dates from the 16th century AD (1496 – 1602 AD with a probability of 76.2%).

at 1  (probability of 68.3%)

at 2  (probability of 95.4 %)

1440 – 1460 AD

1434 – 1476 AD

(68.3%)

(95.4%)

from OxCal v4.4.4 and Intcal 20 [5, 6] Calibrated dates [years AD]

Radiocarbon dating of the sample E2 (textile). The obtained age indicates that the Figure 2: Radiocarbon dating of the sample E1 (paper). The obtained age indicates that the material is material is ancient. From the calibrated ancient. From the calibrated results, we can determine that it most probably dates from the 16 century AD (1496 – 1602 AD with a probability of 76.2%). results, we can determine that it most probably dates from the 15th century AD (1434 – 1476 AD with a probability of 95.4%). Radiocarbon Age [BP]

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Calibrated dates [years AD]

Figure 3: Radiocarbon dating of the sample E2 (textile). The obtained age indicates that the material is th ancient. From the calibrated results, we can determine that it most probably dates from the 15 century AD

Thank you

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the following people whose support, insight and dedication made this publication possible: Vivi Baker — my ever-patient and supportive wife, whose encouragement and understanding have meant more than words can say. Kuniko Matsui — for her invaluable knowledge and scholarship over the many years we have worked together. Sofya Chalaguina — for her diligence, enthusiasm, and unwavering commitment. Kristan Hague – my close friend and collegue who can see what others can not. Thank you all for everything you do. We could never achieve the level of excellence we strive for without each of you.

Direction of publication Gregg & Vivi Baker Assistant of publication Sofya Chalaguina Editorial design Juliette Amigues & Manu Blondiau Photography Stanislas Huaux Printing Drifosett, in Brussels, Belgium Printed in 2026