TNM & TOPPAN MUSEUM THEATER

There’s something behind the byōbu (folding screen) painting Wind God and Thunder God. What was the hidden sentiment in Sakai Hōitsu’s masterpiece Flowering Plants of Summer and Autumn? Explore the secrets on the front and back of the byōbu screen.

    These delicate flowers are drenched by rain and battered by wind. One can almost hear the wind whistling past in this scene depicted by the late-Edo Period painter, Sakai Hōitsu, in his byōbu screen painting Flowering Plants of Summer and Autumn. Hōitsu was born into a daimyō family and was a man of many talents, having also made a contribution to the world of haiku.
    Were you aware that the masterpiece of Hōitsu’s later years ―Flowering Plants of Summer and Autumn― was actually painted on the back-side of a byōbu screen per a request Hōitsu received? The byōbu screen was painted by a master painter whom Hōitsu had long admired and considered to be his painting mentor.
    What sentiment did Hōitsu wish to convey by painting Flowering Plants of Summer and Autumn on the back of this byōbu screen? We’ll use virtual reality to explore the secrets concealed in how the back of the screen relates to the front.