BENRIDO COLLOTYPE Traditional folding fan, The Pine Trees

◆<Shorin-zu byobu> Hasegawa Tohaku ◆

Hasegawa Tohaku, Azuchi-Momoyama period, Tokyo National Museum collection

This is originally a Japanese folding screen: The Pine Trees (松林図 屏風, Shōrin-zu byōbu) by the Japanese artist Hasegawa Tōhaku, founder of the Hasegawa school of Japanese art. The precise date for the screens is not known, but they were clearly made in the late 16th century, in the Momoyama period, around 1595. The screens are held by the Tokyo National Museum, and were designated as a National Treasure of Japan in 1952.

The ink-on-paper work depicts a view of Japanese pine trees in the mist, with parts of the trees visible and parts obscured, illustrating the Zen Buddhist concept of ma (間) and evoking the Japanese wabi (侘) aesthetic of rustic simplicity. They are said to be the first paintings of their scale to depict only trees as subject matter, although a white shape to the upper right of the left panel might suggest a background mountain peak.