Eastern Breezes

Landscapes, scenes of daily life and Kabuki theatre, as well as the earliest encounters between Japanese civilization and Portuguese navigators – the history of folding screens presented in this volume offers an invaluable portrait of the meeting of Eastern and Western cultures, as well as to the evolving forms and functions of this fascinating object over the centuries.

Originating in China and known in Japan since the 7th century, folding screens initially depicted landscapes and everyday scenes. However, following contact with the West, they left behind an almost photographic representation of the arrival of the Portuguese in Japan. This history is retraced in these pages through a dual perspective: scholar Hwee Lie Blehaut focuses on Chinese folding screens, while curator Giorgio Antei explores Japanese screens and their influence in the West. The book also examines their transformation from practical household items into artistic expressions rich in identity and aesthetics, from an exclusively Sino-Japanese craft to a creation adopted and reinterpreted several countries, blending styles and influences, and ultimately becoming a refined decorative piece found all over the world. It is, inevitably, a story told in two voices – where the observer and the observed constantly exchange roles. Perspectives, gazes and reflections intertwine within an object that, by its very nature, plays with our vision. At times deceiving it through striking mises en abyme, at times obscuring it, leaving room for imagination and desire.