meisho-e 名所絵

Keywords
Art History
Painting

Paintings of famous locations around the Japanese capital of Kyoto (formerly Heian-kyō 平安京) at certain characteristic seasons, often showing aristocrats or local people engaged in seasonal or everyday activities *shiki-e 四季絵, from the Heian period. Although no Heian period meisho-e survive, documentary evidence and later examples indicate that meisho-e typically had large compositional formats on screens *byōbu-e 屏風絵, or panels *shōji-e 障子絵, filled with several scenes either of beloved locations such as *Sagano 嵯峨野, the barrier at Ōsaka-no-seki 逢坂の関, the beach at Akashi 明石, the blooming cherries on the mountain ridges of *Yoshino 吉野, the plain of Musashi *Musashino 武蔵野, the barrier at Shirakawa, Shirakawa-no-seki 白河の関, or several spots in one location or province. Such paintings were appreciated in conjunction with waka 和歌 poetry, which relied heavily on associational references to seasons and famous scenic spots. The paintings inspired poetry, or vice versa *utaawase-e 歌合絵; and the paintings were often embellished with poems or poetic titles. See also *Daijō-e byōbu 大嘗会屏風. After the 14th century, the tradition of meisho-e spread to other types of painting, especially handscrolls *emaki 絵巻, and exerted a lasting influence on later developments, in particular screens of Scenes In and Around the Capital *rakuchūrakugai-zu 洛中洛外図, and the work of such woodblock print *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 artists as Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797-1858) and Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎(1760-1849).