Kakemono Set of Four Paintings – Legends of the Four Seasons

In a Japanese home the hanging scroll changes with the season – this set takes the tradition at its word and brings all four at once. Each scroll tells an episode from history and legend: in spring Minamoto no Yoshiie rides past the Nakoso Barrier beneath falling cherry blossoms; in summer an imperial envoy stands at the Yōrō waterfall, whose water, according to tradition, turned into sake.

Autumn belongs to Minamoto no Nakakuni, who on a moonlit night in Sagano rides after the sound of a koto, playing the flute himself as he goes. In winter Prince Koretaka sets out to hunt with falcon and retinue. Fine brush lines, delicate mineral pigments and wide, almost empty landscape spaces hold the four scenes in a shared tone.

All four paintings bear the signature “Fujiwara Kyōhō” with two red seals and are dated summer 1913; they point to Okumura Kyōhō, a painter from Aichi in the tradition of the Kose school. Painted on paper, mounted in dark silk with gold brocade and fitted with wooden jikusaki, the scrolls are kept in pairs in two wooden boxes whose lids list the themes by season.