Keywords:
Seleccionado:Tagasodescreens, Japanese poetry, Japanese art, ikōkazari, Momoyama, kosode, rusu moyōCopyright (c) 2011 Daniel Sastre de la Vega
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Abstract
The Tagasode screens from the Momoyama period (1573-1615) and the early Edo period (1615-1868) represent within Japanese art history one of the best examples to understand how the social contexts of the production of a work can alter its reception at the same time. In addition, the screens go beyond social barriers and create a discourse in which gender sets its instrumentalization and re-contextualizes its understanding/ meaning. Differing from a formal analysis which has considered them to be a mere link in the evolution of genre paintings, this article will present the uniqueness of this group of works by introducing decorative traditions popular within specific social strata. Two main explanations have been proposed by previous specialists to date. The first and more conservative one defends that the depicted subjects are inspired by literary sources, while the second and more recent one, being supported by furniture and clothing historians, emphasizes the practical nature and usage of the screens.