Drying Fishnets in the Four Seasons

Because they were freestanding and easily moved and stored, folding screens were used as flexible decorations in Japanese palaces and temples. They served as temporary room dividers and, through their style and subject matter, set the tone for special occasions. The pair of screens shown here likely dates to the Momoyama period (1573–1615), when many military leaders commissioned screens with an abundance of gold to brighten the dark interiors of their castles.

The subject of fishnets hanging on beachside posts was popular in part because it referred to a Chinese theme, “Fishing Village in Evening Glow,” that had been treated by East Asian artists and poets for centuries as part of the larger suite of subjects called “Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers.” Here the fishnets frame a subtle story of seasonal change: moving from right to left, we see the new beach grasses of spring, which grow tall in the summer, go to seed and start to yellow in the fall, and then completely desiccate in the winter. These screens, and a very similar pair in the Imperial Household Collection in Tōkyō, have long been attributed to the Momoyama-period artist Kaihō Yūshō, but they bear neither a signature nor seals to confirm this attribution.