Collections

Sliding Screens  Tomioka Tessai (1836-1924)

  • Sleding Screens, Colour on paper
  • 1909, Meiji period
No.13056

These sliding screen paintings by Tomioka Tessai (1836-1924) adorned two rooms in the study room of the mansion built in Mikage, Hyogo Prefecture, by Suzuki Masaya (1861-1922), the third director-general of Sumitomo. Tessai was invited by Suzuki to paint sliding screens, and moreover he wrote the title of the mansion, “Takushinken.” These were completed in 1909, when Tessai was 73 years old. The collection includes 16 sliding screen paintings: landscapes, pine trees, flowers, accompanied by a single frame of framed calligraphy. While Tessai’s works remain numerous today, his large-scale sliding screen paintings are relatively rare. This drawing remains in its original form.