Prefectural Designation: Folding screen Depicting Festival Mitsuyama
| Area | Art |
|---|---|
| Collection name | |
| Age | The Edo period (1603-1868) |
| Century | |
| Painter | |
| Pronunciation of the painter’s name | |
| Date (year, month, day) | |
| Year (Christian Era) | |
| Volume | Two-paneled screen |
| Material | Painted on a sheet of paper |
| Size | 58.6×81.8 |
| Designation | Designated as a cultural property by Hyogo prefecture |
Explanation
Itatehyozu Shrine held the Rinji Festival every 20 years and the Teibo Festival every 60 years. The Rinji Festival was called “Mitsuyama” after the creation of three mountains and the Teibo Festival was called “Hitotsuyama” after the creation of a mountain. These three mountains were called West Mountain, Middle Mountain (South Mountain) and East Mountain after the places where they were created. West Mountain was called Two-Color Mountain because it was winded by white and light-blue cotton. Middle Mountain was called Five-Color Mountain because it was winded by blue, yellow, red, white and purple cotton. East Mountain was called Kosode Mountain because it was decorated by kosode, the so-called kimono.
Of these three mountains, the Middle and East Mountains were decorated by feudal lords and the West Mountain was decorated by kosode offered by ordinary households and was decorated as part of the townspeople’s duties. Each mountain was decorated with figures made of cloths and artificial flowers. They established a mountain-top shrine on top of the mountains, and set Noh stages on the foot. The festivals featured floats, five types of divine service, sarugaku (a medieval Noh farce) and various creations. In particular, the five kinds of divine service include yabusame, kurabeuma, mikowatari, hitotsumono and yumihokosashi. The style of festivals that can be seen even today is considered to have been established in the Warring States period (1467-1573) and the spectacularly and magnificently decorated mountains are widely popular as symbols of the festivals.
The main building, sosha, surrounded by Clay walls is depicted on the upper part of the folding screen. A main shrine, outer shrine and bell tower are also shown. The small shrine on top of the gate facing south is an on-top-of-gate shrine. The balconies of the feudal lords and his vassals are set along the fences and people enjoying watching the festival are shown. A parade of mikowatari, hitotsumono, yabusame and kasahoko is going on the street in front of the gate. Kasahoko and the party on the street called “Odoriba” between the right and left balconies are song accompaniments of each mountain. The man wearing a suit of armor is a guardsman of the mountain.
On the lower part of the folding screen, Five-Color Mountain and Two-Color Mountain sit alongside Kosode Mountain and the torii, the archway to the shrine from the left. A mountain-top shrine is set on top of the mountain and a stage is set on the foot. Two armored warriors are drawn on Kosode Mountain; the other one is drawn jumping on top of the rooftop of the stage leading to the mountain. In Five-Color Mountain, Zhong Kui is running after an ogre with a sword in his right hand. Two-Color Mountain expresses a historical event in connection with Zhang Liang and Huang Shigong in the early Western Han dynasty in China. On the stage of Kosode Mountain, a shojo (red-haired lucky god) dance is being performed and people are laying scarlet carpets on the balcony in front of the mountain and enjoying the performance in a relaxed atmosphere. The frame on the torii archway says, “Gun-hatto Shoichii Sosha Iwa Daimyojin.”
It is presumed that when drawn, this folding screen, which is partitioned in two, was a large-screen work that should have been entitled, A Painting of a Himeji Castle Town because the four sides of the screen are cut.
(The Second Collection of Works in the Possession of the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History, 2002, a piece of writing by Kenji Ogurisu was partially modified)