Resplendent gold leaf folding screens on display at Okada Museum of Art in Hakone

The Okada Museum of Art (Hakone, Kanagawa Pref.) is running an exhibition showcasing splendiferous gilt folding screens from among its vast collection of Japanese art. The exhibition goes beyond just showing off their brilliance and brings the viewers’ attention to the various representations in gold by examining the kin-un (golden clouds) often preferred by Kano school artists, the silver leaf and silver dust used with gold, and the kin-ji (golden base) of the paintings on folding screens.

Gold Screens Festival
Welcome to the World of the Gold

Dec 17 (Sun), 2023 – Jun 2 (Sun), 2024

Okada Museum of Art
(Hakone, Kanagawa Pref.)

*See outline below for details

Among the 28 gilt folding screens on display in “Gold Screens Festival: Welcome to the World of the Gold,” the exhibition scheduled to run through June 2, are “Chrysanthemums” (see top photo) by Rinpa school artist Ogata Korin (1658-1716) and “Birds and Flowers in Spring and Summer” by the famed Kano school of Japanese painting.

Korin’s work is a must-see considering his fame as the painter of “Irises” (Nezu Museum, Tokyo) and “Red and White Plum Blossoms” (MOA Museum, Shizuoka Prefecture), both of which are folding screens designated as a national treasure of Japan. The background and ground are not defined in “Chrysanthemums,” allowing the white blooms, green foliage and black ink to stand out on a flat golden base. Another work by Korin on display is “Ducks and Snow-Covered Pine Trees,” which is another example of his use of the flat golden base to highlight his subjects.

According to the museum, depicting dynamic golden clouds billowing in the mountains and among the trees to create depth in a painting was a distinct style of Kano school painters. Given that knowledge, it becomes fairly easy to deduce that “Birds and Flowers in Spring and Summer” from the Momoyama period (16th century) is the work of the most prominent school of painting in medieval Japan. “Kurama and Itsukushima” is also attributed to the Kano school.

The golden bridge and silvery waves — the colors seem darker due to discoloration — depicted in “Willow Bridge and Waterwheel” from the early Edo period, also on display, suggest that the artist (unknown) drew from the older sytle of Muromachi-period folding screens.

Gilt folding screens from modern and contemporary times, such as “Mt. Fuji” by Kawai Gyokudo (1873-1957), which were created in line with the artistic styles of the past but innovative for their time are also exhibited.

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