将軍家の襖絵（根津美術館） Fusuma Paintings in the Shoguns’ Residence (Nezu Museum)

 

足利義満や足利義政などの歴代の足利将軍は、中国から宋画などの名品を中国から取り寄せて、それを手本にして芸阿弥や周文らの同朋衆に襖絵を描かさせて、自分の邸宅の会所と呼ばれる部屋に飾らせた。

それらの邸宅は今ではほどんどが無くなってしまい、襖絵の多くも同時に失われたり、あるいは散逸した。

現在まで残ったその時代の襖絵を一堂に集めて、かつてあった場所を推測して展示するという、何とも豪華で野心的な展覧会が、根津美術館で開催された。

それらの屏風絵には、春夏山水図、秋冬山水図、四季耕作図、養蚕機織図、韃靼人狩猟図などの伝統的なテーマが、周文、芸愛、式部輝忠などの絵師たちによって描かれている。

そうした室町時代の襖絵は、江戸時代の琳派や狩野派による色鮮やかな絵と違って、色が少なく、モノクロの部分が多い。

2つの時代の雰囲気や、芸術感の違いが如実に感じられて、興味深かった。

Successive Ashikaga shoguns, such as Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and Ashikaga Yoshimasa, ordered masterpieces such as Song paintings from China, and used them as models for their peers, such as Geami and Shubun, to paint fusuma paintings for themselves. It was displayed in a room called Kaisho in the mansion.

Most of those mansions are now gone, and many of the fusuma paintings have also been lost or dispersed.

An extremely extravagant and ambitious exhibition was held at the Nezu Museum, gathering fusuma paintings from that era that have survived to the present day, and exhibiting speculations about where they used to be.

On these folding screens, traditional themes such as spring and summer landscapes, autumn and winter landscapes, four seasons cultivation, sericulture and weaving, and hunting of tartars were painted by artists such as Shubun, Geai, and Terutada Shikibu.

Unlike the colorful paintings of the Rimpa and Kano schools of the Edo period, the fusuma paintings of the Muromachi period have few colors and many parts are in black and white.

It was interesting to feel the difference in the atmosphere of the two eras and the sense of art.