Folding Screens of Flowers

Fukae Roshu was born in 1699 and led an affluent life as a child. As his father worked with a person who provided support for Ogata Korin (1658-1716), Roshu may have been directly inspired by Korin when he was young. In 1714, Roshu was driven out of Kyoto at age 16 when his father was exiled to a remote island in connection with an incident. Almost no records remain to show how Roshu lived following that until he died at 59 on April 8, 1757. Flowers from spring, summer, autumn, and winter are painted on the sixpanel screen from right to left. Japan’s four changing seasons are represented from right to left by underlining the red hue of the azalea and the white of the chrysanthemum while arranging similar motifs painted in slightly different colors, such as fernery, field horsetail shoots, bracken, and plume grass, around them. Flowers’ stamens and pistils and leaves’ veins were recreated with gold pigments, so an accent and elegance are added to the screen.