Japan: Courts and Culture
Telling the story of 400 years of British royal contact with Japan
Folding screen
c.1880-1897Lacquer, wood, silk, mother of pearl, gilt, paper, paint | 192.5 x 73.7 x 3.2 cm (each leaf) | RCIN 42037
A four-leaf Japanese folding screen, each fold comprising a a black lacquered frame joined by three sets of leather thongs, a small lacquered lower panel decorated with pale blue flower shapes in mother-of-pearl and leaf shapes in gilt, and a large embroidered silk upper panel. The first of the main panels is embroidered cranes and a tree and flowers; the next with duck, birds and a tree and flowers; the third with long tailed birds and a tree and flowers; the last with a peacock, other birds and a tree and flowers. The reverse painted with a landscape of mountain, trees and waterfall.
Presented to Queen Victoria by the Emperor Meiji on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee, 1897.
The screen was displayed with other Diamond Jubilee gifts in the North Gallery of the Imperial Institute later that year. According to the Illustrated London News, 'Of Eastern screens there are beautiful examples, particularly noteworthy being one with silk panels representing wild mountain scenery where a foaming torrent is rendered with exquisite power and fidelity. This treasure is the gift of the Emperor of Japan' (ILN, 'The Queen's Jubilee Presents', 23 October 1897, p.577).
Recorded in the 'Indian Corridor' at Osborne House, 1989 (E.A. Sibbick, 'Notes on the Exhibits in the Indian Corridor at Osborne', RCIN 1114729)
