The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 24, 2024

Arrival of the "Southern Barbarians"

Arrival of the "Southern Barbarians"

c. 1600
(1573–1615)
One of a pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on paper
Image: 146.7 x 337.2 cm (57 3/4 x 132 3/4 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1960.193.1
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Europeans were called "Southern Barbarians" because their ships arrived in Japan from the south.

Description

In this screen a formidable Portuguese ship with its fanciful rigging arrives in a Japanese port, much to the delight of the locals. The anonymous artist’s attention to detail in the depiction of the people, often grouped in vignettes, makes for a compelling scene, heightened by the use of billowing gold clouds leading the eye through the composition. Near the top of the left screen, rich women, sequestered in their homes, enjoy the dockside scene. In the scene on the right, townspeople and shop owners watch as the Portuguese walk down the street, obvious in their cartoonish, balloon-shaped pants. At the far edge of the right screen, Jesuit priests are visible in their long black robes. Japanese patrons were curious about the outside world, and scenes of foreigners such as this were particularly popular.
  • Ogiware Yasunosuke
    Nagami Takutaro 永見 徳太郎 [1890–1950], Nagasaki, Japan
    ?–1960
    (Mayuyama and Company, Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1960–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Yoshida, Teruji 吉田暎二. Ukiyoe taisei 浮世繪大成. Tokyo 東京: Toho Shoin 東方書院, Showa 昭和 5–6 [1930 –1931]. Reproduced: pls. 108–110
    Hōun 寳雲, no. 4 (1932): pp. 64–83.
    Buhot, Jean. "Les Paravents Des Portugais: A Propos du Paravent du Musée Guimet." Revue Des Arts Asiatiques 12, no. 2/3 (June-September 1938): 113–124. Reproduced: pls. 2–4 www.jstor.org
    Okamoto, Yoshitomo 岡本良知. Nanban byōbu kō 南蛮屛風考. Tōkyō: Shōshinsha, 1955. Reproduced: title page
    Narazaki, Muneshige 楢崎 宗重. "Japan's Trade with Western Countries" Kokka no. 764 (November, 1955). Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 361, pl. 6
    Kondō, Ichitarō 近藤市太郎. Momoyama shōhekiga meisaku ten 桃山障壁画名作展. Tōkyō: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 1957. Reproduced: no. 14
    Zusetsu sekai bunkashi taikei 図說世界文化史大系. Tokyo: Kadokawa shoten, 1959. Reproduced: vol. 23, part 4 , figs. 60–61
    Lee, Sherman E. "Year in Review| 1960." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 47, no. 10 (1960): 223–254. Reproduced: no. 34, pp. 224–225; Mentioned: no. 34, pp. 223 and 251 www.jstor.org
    Lee, Sherman E. Japanese Decorative Style. Tokyo: Makoto Nakao, 1962. cat. no. 96
    Von Ragué, Beatrix. "A Pair of Screens with the "Southern Barbarians"." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 52, no. 2 (1965): 27–33. www.jstor.org
    Narazaki, Muneshige 楢崎 宗重. "The Types of Namban Screens" Kokka no. 881 (August, 1965): pp. 33–38. Reproduced: pls. 7–9
    Bowie, Theodore Robert, J. Leroy Davidson, and Rudolf Wittkower. East-West in Art: Patterns of Cultural & Aesthetic Relationships. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966. Reproduced: pl. 186
    Mayuyama, Junkichi 繭山順吉. Japanese Art in the West. [Tokyo]: Mayuyama & Co, 1966. Mentioned: p. 351; Reproduced: pp. 168–169, pls. 198a and b
    Katsuki Takashi. "Namban Byobu." Oriental Art, vol. 13 (Winter, 1967). Reproduced: p. 257, fig. 5
    Charleston, R. J., and John Ayers. World Ceramics: An Illustrated History. London: Hamlyn, 1968. Reproduced: p. 67, pl. 187
    Shimada, Shūjirō 島田修二郎. Zaigai hihō: Ōbei shūzō nihon kaiga shūsei 在外秘宝 : 欧米收蔵日本絵画集成. Tokyo: Gakushu kenkyusha, Showa 44 [1969]. Reproduced: vol. 1, pt. 1, pls. 42 and 43
    Grilli, Elise. The Art of the Japanese Screen. New York: Weatherhill, 1970. Reproduced: pp. 234–235, pl. 130
    Okamoto, Yoshitomo 岡本良知, and Takamizawa Tadao 高見沢忠雄. Nanban byōbu 南蛮屛風. Tōkyō: Kajima Shuppankai, 1970. Reproduced: vol. 1, p. 179, pl. 48
    Sakamoto, Mitsuru 坂本満, Tadashi Sugase 菅瀬正, and Fujiō Naruse 成瀬不二雄. Nanban bijutsu to Yōfūga 南蛮美術と洋風画. Tōkyō: Shōgakkan, 1970. Reproduced: pls. 52–53
    Varley, H. Paul. Japanese Culture; a Short History. New York: Praeger, 1973. Reproduced: fig. 40 (left screen only)
    "Japanese Art in the West." The Sun, no. 21 (Winter, 1977): pp. 82-83. Reproduced: fig. 62
    Lee, Sherman E. Japanese Screens from the Museum and Cleveland Collections. Cleveland, OH: The Museum, 1977. cat. no. 11
    Sakamoto, Mitsuru 坂本満. Fūzokuga: Nanban fūzoku 風俗画: 南蛮風俗. Tōkyō: Kōdnsha, 1977. Reproduced: pp. 88–89 and 92, pls. 97, 98, 105
    Sakamoto, Mitsuru. Nanban byōbu. Tōkyō: Shibundō, 1977. Reproduced: pl. 32
    Moore, Janet Gaylord. The Eastern Gate: An Invitation to the Arts of China and Japan. Cleveland, OH: Collins, 1979. pp. 228–230
    Vollmer, John, E. J. Keall, and E. Nagai-Berthrong. Silk Roads, China Ships. Toronto, ON: Royal Ontario Museum, 1983. pp. 136, 181
    "Fugetsu sansui 風月山水." Vol. 12 in Nihon no ishō 日本の意匠. Yoshioka, Yukio 吉岡幸雄, editor. Kyōto-shi: Kyōto Shoin, 1986. Reproduced: pp. 74–75, color pl. 75
    Tsutsui, Hiroichi 筒井紘一 and Tatsurō Akai 赤井達郎. Chanoyu kaiga shiryō shūsei 茶の湯絵画資料集成. Tōkyō: Heibonsha, 1992. p. 31, no. 14
    Cunningham, Michael R. Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Reproduced and Mentioned: cat. no. 9, pp. 24–25
    Grossman, Nancy, James T. Ulak, Marjorie Williams, and Laurence Channing. Art of Japan: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2005. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 78
    Rivero Lake, Rodrigo. Namban: Art in Viceregal Mexico. [Madrid]: Estiloméxico Editores, 2005. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp.165–167
    Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 182–183
    Welsh, Jennifer L. "Cultural Trends and Cross-Cultural Interest: The 'Southern Barbarian Screens,' and Early Modern Japan." Japan Studies Association Journal 10 (2012). Reproduced: p. 164, ill. 2
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 243; Reproduced: pp. 232–233
    Usanov-Geissler, Nora. Kyōto und seine Anderen: bildkünstlerische Imaginationen der Küste auf japanischen nanban byōbu. München: Iudicium, 2019. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 79, fig. 56
  • Main Japanese Rotation (Gallery 237). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (May 29-December 23, 2013).
    Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 15-September 16, 2001).
    Restoration at Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties. Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties (organizer) (May 22, 1997-April 28, 1998).
    Autumn Grasses: Arts of the Momoyama Period (1573-1615). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 4-December 11, 1988).
    Japanese Screens from the Museum and Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 23-May 8, 1977).
    East-West in Art. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN.
    Japanese Decorative Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art (August 30-October 15, 1961); The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (November 9-December 17, 1961).
    Year in Review - Nineteen Hundred Sixty. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 30, 1960-January 1, 1961).
  • {{cite web|title=Arrival of the "Southern Barbarians"|url=false|author=|year=c. 1600|access-date=24 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1960.193.1