Nanban Folding Screens from Kobe, Japan

The Kobe Municipal Museum in Japan possesses a valuable pair of nanban folding screens dating from the late 16^th or early 17^th century. They consist of six hinged panels depicting the large black ship from Macau – the Kurofune –, the unloading of goods by the nanban-jin – the southern barbarians – and scenes of daily Japanese life.

On the left-hand screen is depicted the departure of a large ship from a foreign port, with its sails unfurled. The port, an imagined land, integrates Chinese and European elements, possibly a fantastical allusion to Macau. It features colourful buildings of Chinese inspiration and others with domes, probably a reference to Western culture. The nanban-jin are represented with large eyes, long noses, and various poses.

The right-hand screen depicts the arrival in the Land of the Rising Sun. The ship’s sails are furled and cargo is being unloaded. The picture includes the arrival of the captain major and his entourage; animals rare in Japan – elephants, Arabian horses, greyhounds; a shop selling Chinese goods such as tiger and leopard skins, silk fabrics, and ceramics; a Christian temple where a priest celebrates Mass; Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries, as well as Japanese worshippers.

This pair of folding screens stands out for its vibrant colours, with meticulously detailed representations of the ship, the architecture of the buildings, and the clothing of the nanban-jin – using specific techniques for special fabrics such as velvet.

The folding screens are signed – Painted by Kanō Naizen – with a white square stamp on each of the panels.

The artwork is part of one of the world’s largest collections of Nanban art. It belonged to the Nanban Art Collection of Nagami Tokutarō (1890-1950), which was acquired in 1932 by Takeshi Ikenaga (1891-1955). The latter founded a museum to display the collection – the Ikenaga Art Museum –, which is now the Kobe Municipal Museum, where it is currently placed. The pieces are similar to one of the pairs of folding screens in the National Museum of Ancient Art, also attributed to Kanō Naizen.

The artwork dates from the Azuchi- Momoyana period (1573-1603), a time of territorial unification, with a Western presence within the territory. The depiction of Franciscans allows us to date the pieces as later than their arrival in Japanese territory (1592).

It is a valuable work because most works depicting the arrival of foreigners are unsigned, while this one is recognized as being authored by Kanō Naizen (1570-1615).

 

The Kurofune, the Great Black Ship

The arrival of the Portuguese in Japan in 1543 marked the beginning of the Japan Route. In the years that followed, various locations on the island of Kyushu were visited by Portuguese adventurers and private merchants. Trade was very profitable, despite the inherent risks of the journey, namely shipwrecks and piracy. Due to the severed relations between China and Japan, Portuguese merchants served as intermediaries, and initially there was no fixed port in Japan for this trade.

In 1550, an annual voyage was created that became a monopoly of the Portuguese crown, overseen by a captain major, a position granted by official authorities as a reward for services rendered. Francisco de Mascarenhas was the first captain major of the Japan route (1556).

From 1557 onwards, Macau became a mandatory stop on the route of the Nau do Trato – the name given to the large vessel. Nagasaki, a fishing village located on the island of Kyushu, Japan, became the ship’s preferred port of call.

By the end of the 16^th century, the trade route of the Nau do Trato was already a regular service. The large ship left Goa in April/May loaded with a wide variety of Indian and Western goods. About a month later it docked in Malacca, where part of the cargo was exchanged for spices. It then continued to Macau, arriving in that city between June and August.

In Macau, it was necessary to make a stop of about ten or twelve months, waiting for the favourable monsoon to continue to Japan. The bulk of the cargo consisted of raw silk from central China, obtained by Portuguese merchants at the biannual fairs in Canton.

The final leg of the journey to Japan began the following year, and it could take about a month to reach Nagasaki. The ship would make another stop in this port, waiting for the October/November monsoon to return; if it was delayed, it could only depart in February/March of the following year. Loaded with goods, notably silver, the ship would begin its return voyage to Macau between November and March.

In addition to missionaries, the large vessel also transported religious artifacts and mail, mainly between Macau and Japan.

In the early 17^th century, difficulties began to arise in carrying out the journey, especially after the arrival of other European powers, namely the Dutch. Attacks became frequent along the route from Macau to Nagasaki.

With the edict of 1614 ordering the departure of the religious orders and the effective expulsion of the Portuguese in 1639, the famous Kurofune Route to Japan came to an end.

 

Nanban Folding Screens

Folding screens – byôbu in Japanese –, made up of articulated panels and usually built up in pairs, are designed to compartmentalize spaces. On the surfaces of the panels, painters recorded themes in narrative continuity.

Folding screens likely originated in China in the 8^th century and from there spread to the Japanese archipelago. Japan developed the folding screen to its liking, gradually replacing the silk of the hinged panels with paper decorated with pictorial designs.

In the mid-15^th century, Kanō Masanobu (1434-1530) founded an art school in Kyoto that remained active for over 400 years, at the heart of the Japanese art world.

From the arrival of the Portuguese in Japan in 1543, an art theme developed, centred on the nanban-jin.

At the end of the 16^th century, the Kanō School underwent a significant artistic shift in terms of the themes depicted, becoming associated with a wealthy clientele from the Kyoto and Osaka-Sakai region, where the main workshops were located.

It is likely that the construction of Nagoya Castle in 1591, in Hizen province in Kyushu, by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), was the starting point for the execution of nanban folding screens. In the spring of 1593, a group of painters from the Kanō School travelled to Nagasaki, the centre of the Macau-Japan trade, and had the opportunity to observe the arrival of the large black ship from the West.

Nanban art likely began in the early 1590s. The oldest known Nanban folding screens, depicting the Nanban-jin and the Kurofune, date from this period, probably resulting from the artists’ journey to Nagasaki.

Folding screens, produced mainly between the late 16^th and mid-17^th centuries, are now scattered throughout the world.

The paintings depict the extraordinary clash of civilizations that took place with the arrival of the Portuguese, viewed from an Eastern perspective. They are realistic compositions with everyday themes and attention to detail. Themes exotic from a Japanese point of view included the arrival of the Kurofune, the central protagonist of the paintings, the representation of the Nanban-jin – merchants and missionaries – and their clothing, the multiracial crew – particularly the Africans – and the unique Christian practices.

The study of nanban art in Japan began with Nagami Tokutaro (1890-1950), a pioneer in this field and one of the most prominent scholars of nanban art, who coined the term in his book Namban-bijutsu-shu (1928).

In Portuguese historiography, the publication in 1929 of “Notas sobre a iconografia dos Portugueses no Japão nos séculos XVI e XVII” by José da Costa Carneiro (1883-1946), a diplomat, was the pioneering essay on the subject of the famous nanban folding screens.

At the beginning of the 20th century, only nine examples of nanban folding screens were known. Currently, more than ninety specimens have been identified, according to the Nanban byōbu shūsei catalog, edited by Mitsuri Sakamoto in 2008.

 

REFERENCES

• BOXER, Charles Ralph, The great ship from Amacon, Macau, Centro de Estudos Marítimos de Macau, 1988.
• THOMAZ, Luís Filipe, Nanban Jin Os Portugueses no Japão, Edição dos CTT, 1993.
• CURVELO, Alexandra, Obras-primas dos Biombos Nanban, Japão-Portugal século XVII. Paris, Éditions Chandeigne, 2015.
• SIMÕES, João Carlos dos Santos, As relações Luso-Nipónicas durante a época Nanban, Dissertação de Mestrado, Coimbra, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra, 2016.

 

PHOTOGRAPHIES

https://www.kobecitymuseum.jp/collection/detail?heritage=365028

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