In and around the Capital (Kyoto) / Left screen

Kyoto was Japan’s biggest city throughout the Heian to Early Edo periods, having a lot of influence on Sakai’s development as a city, its commerce, its autonomy, and its culture. Paintings of “In and Around Kyoto” show panoramic views of famous sites and the bustling atmosphere of the streets within and surroundings of the capital Kyoto, usually on a pair of screens; more than eighty works created up until the early Edo period have been passed down to the present day.
On this work, while the Nijo Castle, a symbol of the authority of the Tokugawa Shogun clan, forms a major part on the left screen, the right screen features the opposing Toyotomi clan’s monumental structures, the Hall of the Great Buddha and the Mausoleum of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It seems to indicate that these screens are displaying the landscape of Kyoto in the late Keicho through early Genna period. In addition, the Fushimi Castle, where the title of the Sei-i Tai-shogun was bestowed upon Tokugawa Ieyasu, lifts on the top right corner.