BENRIDO COLLOTYPE Traditional folding fan, "Unryu-zu" Dragon

◆<Dragon figure> Kano Tanyu brush (unisex) ◆

Kano Tanyu Edo period Toji warehouse

Dragon and Wave, Tiger among Bamboo, detail, by Kanō Tan'yū, Japanese Edo period. 

Here the dragon emerges from the swirling cosmic dust of the universe. The dragon represents yang, which encompasses light, the sun, the heavens, active forces and masculine forces.

From 1617, Tan'yu as an official artist of the Tokugawa shogun, worked on large scale commissions at Edo, Nijo, Osaka, and Nagoya castles, where his screens and panels in vibrant colors with subjects such as tigers birds and plants were used to bring nature inside, while his extensive use of gilding was designed to reflect light within the dark interiors of these castle spaces.

Tan'yu's masterful handling of ink and use of light and dark is evident in the swirling tempestuous clouds and the powerful snaking form of the dragon that dominates the composition of this screen, with a comparable example being the famed 'Unryu-zu' dragon ceiling painted over the course of eight years by Tan'yu for the Myoshin-ji temple in Kyoto.