2-728-438 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Famous Views of Omi, 1660s-90s. These byobu vividly portray the shores of Lake Biwa, located near Kyoto, and take a bird's-eye view of verdant landscapes rendered with richly toned hues of thick mineral pigments. The foliage detail and emphasis on its size, shape, and placement offer a visual reading of the composition from right to left. Eschewing Western perspective the images proceed from the impressive Shinto shrine set deep in one of the mountain villages, along the shoreline, and past rice fields, ending in the left screen whose entire six panels present the Ishiyama-dera temple compound. The blossoming cherry trees indicate that it’s late March-early April, and billowing gold-foil clouds help propel the eye toward the compound’s elevations, enclosures, and spaces, particularly the huge well-known, blue-green boulders said to have come from China. The temple's fame, however, is as the friendly domicile for Murasaki Shikibu, the eleventh-century author of The Tale of Genji .