By ERIKO CHIBA/ Staff Writer
November 5, 2020 at 16:15 JST
A newly discovered painting of a sparrow drawn by a Tokugawa shogun will be put on display at the Fuchu Art Museum in western Tokyo in September 2021.
Museum curator Nobuhisa Kaneko identified the drawing, which is a hanging scroll and features a sparrow among bamboos, as a work of Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-1651). Kaneko studies the third shogun’ s artwork, which he describes as “cute and fun.”
The sparrow drawing is a surprise, Kaneko said, because of its depth. Iemitsu drew the “sparrow’s background, such as bamboos, in perspective.”
“It is adorable, carefully drawn and likable,” he said.
A man residing in Nagano had come into possession of the hanging scroll artwork by inheriting it from his late father.
A note for the hanging scroll suggests that the drawing is the work of Iemitsu and part of a collection of a major landowner in the Joetsu region in Niigata Prefecture.
Kaneko conducted research through a local TV program in Nagano Prefecture.
Iemitsu had solidified the political foundation for the Tokugawa dynasty, which lasted from 1603 to 1867. He persecuted Christians and instituted an isolationist foreign policy that lasted for more than two centuries.
In his spare time, Iemitsu enjoyed painting.
Approximately 20 of his drawings have been discovered, including an ink brush painting of a rooster.
The drawing of a sparrow and bamboos will be part of the exhibit that will open at the museum in September next year.
VOX POPULI: Restrictions on travel in Japan recall life under shogunate rule
June 22, 2020
Tokyo exhibition shows how the kimono changed over centuries
July 23, 2020
Lisa’s In and Around Tokyo: Kawagoe, a quaint merchant town with vibes of ‘Little Edo’
December 10, 2019
VOX POPULI: Pandemic resets Japan, Britain relations to time of Miura Anjin
June 1, 2020
Life-size wooden Hideyoshi statue discovered, likely biggest in Japan
May 22, 2020
Stories about memories of cherry blossoms solicited from readers
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series on the death of a Japanese woman that sparked a debate about criminal justice policy in the United States
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A newly discovered drawing of a sparrow and bamboos by Tokugawa Iemitsu (Provided by Nobuhisa Kaneko)
