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In a previous study, an optical investigation of the arhat painting (rakan-zu) owned by Komyoji in Tokyo revealed that the painting had been repaired several times and suggested that the coloring materials used for the supplemental silk portions were different from those used for the original silk portions on the left wing of the Jivamjivaka (gumyo-cho) of the painting. In the present study, with the main objective of clarifying the differences between the coloring materials used for the supplemental and original silk portions, an analytical investigation was conducted at Komyoji by using visible and near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy withahyperspectral camera and X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF). As a result, on the left wing of the Jivamjivaka, the coloring materials used in the original silk sections are assessed to have been painted with the blue pigment gunjo (made of azurite) and the green pigment rokusho (made of malachite), both of which have been used for a long time in Japan and China. On the other hand, the coloring materials used in the supplemental silk parts are possibly new coloring materials that became available during the modern period, judging from the color and chemical composition of the particles. In addition, the reddish-blue pigment used to paint the hair of Shakra Devanam Indra (Taishakuten), which is not present on the supplemental silk parts, suggests that it is a new coloring material introduced in the modern period. Other coloring materials used in the painting are confirmed to be cinnabar/vermilion, lead red, and lead white, all of which have been used in Japan and China since the ancient times.

Nucleic acids are biomolecules of amazing versatility. Beyond their function for information storage they can be used for building nano-objects. We took advantage of loop–loop or kissing interactions between hairpin building blocks displaying complementary loops for driving the assembly of nucleic acid nano-architectures. It is of interest to make the interaction between elementary units dependent on an external trigger, thus allowing the control of the scaffold formation. To this end we exploited the binding properties of structure-switching aptamers (aptaswitch). Aptaswitches are stem–loop structured oligonucleotides that engage a kissing complex with an RNA hairpin in response to ligand-induced aptaswitch folding. We demonstrated the potential of this approach by conditionally assembling oligonucleotide nanorods in response to the addition of adenosine.

6. Kanô Shunko, Karako (Chinese Children) at Play Pair of two-panel screens, color on paper, Each screen H. 50.0 cm, W. 171.6 cm This pair of half-height, two-panel folding screens depicts so-called karako (Chinese children) at play. The right screen shows the children playing various musical instruments, along with auspicious painting themes such as the shôchikubai (pine-bamboo-plum) combination and crane and tortoise combination, all alongside karako playing with pull-carts. The left screen shows other karako playing hide and seek, the peony and peacock as symbols of wealth and power, and other children painting ink paintings. Images of karako were one of the popular themes painted on wall and panel paintings of 17th century Buddhist nunneries and women’s buildings in the imperial and shogunal palaces. They came to symbolize the world of women’s palace culture. This painting can be considered one of Kanô Shunko’s masterpieces, with the addition of the traditional gentlemanly pursuits theme of kinki shoga (zither playing, chess, painting and calligraphy) set against a background of traditional Kanô school landscape scenery and gold mist and clouds scattered across its entire surface. 7. Deer in an Autumn Field, Pair of six-panel screens, color on paper, Each screen, H. 148.5 cm, W. 341.6 cm Deer are seen against a space filled with autumn grasses on this pair of six-panel screens. The right screen depicts, from the right, morning glories, patrinia, Japanese pampas grass, bushclover and ivy, with a stag standing with his back to the viewer in the third panel. The left screen, from the right, depicts hydrangeas, bellflowers, Japanese pampas grass, wild chrysanthemums, morning glories, bushclover, hibiscus, chrysanthemums and other plants, with a pair of deer seated in a dense thicket of bushclover on the fourth panel. The deer/bushclover combination was an animal-plant pairing signaling autumn in waka poetry since antiquity. Numerous paintings and decorative artworks were created which incorporated that poetic sentiment. This work is characterized by its separate use of different techniques to depict the autumn grasses, from ink painting to mineral pigments and organic dyestuff, and its rendering of simple but elegant expanse of an autumn field through careful use of a gentle color palette and adroit placement of tonal variation. Both screens are impressed with the “I’nen” seal used by the Sôtatsu school. 8. Maruyama Ôkyo, Carp, Crucian Carp and Turtle, Twopanel screen, color on silk, H. 57.8 cm, W. 171.6 cm This small, furosaki byôbu (folding screen) depicts a crucian carp, two carp and two turtles. The carp is a frequently seen traditional painting theme, and Ôkyo’s own hanging scroll images of the theme are well known. This work presents the auspicious themes of carp and turtle, combined with a single crucian carp, all presenting a cooling waterside scene. Overall the composition is painted in pale ink, blue pigment and gold paint, while a humorous touch is added to the composition through the meeting of the gazes of the carp on the far right and the turtle on the far left. While Ôkyo based this painting on sketches from life, he also fully employed creative touches as he was strongly aware of how this painting would be viewed as an artwork. 9. Suzuki Kiitsu, Flowering Plants, Two framed panels, Color on gold ground on paper, Each H. 24.4 cm, W. 79.0 cm Kiitsupaintedbracken, violets, horsetails , chrysanthemums, Japanese pampas grass, nurude (Chinese sumac) and spearflowers on gold ground-covered paper on four small sliding door panels. Today those panels have been mounted into two framed panels, with each framed panel consisting of two of the sliding door panels surrounded by a lacquered wooden frame. The hand pull fittings are incised with bushclover and fujibakama (Eupatorium fortunei), plant types not included in the painted images, and it is thought that the hand pulls have accompanied the paintings from their inception. These works were commissioned for use as small sliding door panels in the upper section of a chigaidana (built-in staggered shelves) arrangement in a shoin-zukuri type room. The painting style and signature and seals indicate that Kiitsu created these autumn grasses paintings during his mature period in his later years. 10. Utagawa Toyoharu, Beauty, Hanging scroll, color on silk, Inscription, H. 32.3 cm, Painting H. 31.6 cm, W. 46.3 cm This hanging scroll presents a painting of a beauty by Utagawa Toyoharu, topped with an inscription by Santô Kyôden. Given that the ground silk pieces used for the inscription and the painting are of different qualities, it is not certain that the two works were originally paired. The inscription has Santô Kyôden’s signature and seals. The date at the end of the inscription corresponds to 1793 (Kansei 5). Toyoharu is known as the founder of the Utagawa school of ukiyo-e artists. He almost exclusively produced paintings, rather than prints, during the latter half of his life. Many of his paintings of beauties are known today. Judging from the woman’s hairstyle and the painting style, this painting is thought to date from the Kansei era (1789–1801). While this accords with the date of the Kyôden inscription, that text includes playful comments about the pleasure quarters, mention of seasonal scenery and Chinese-style poetry, and thus it cannot be said to match this painting. at the end of the inscription corresponds to 1793 (Kansei 5). Toyoharu is known as the founder of the Utagawa school of ukiyo-e artists. He almost exclusively produced paintings, rather than prints, during the latter half of his life. Many of his paintings of beauties are known today. Judging from the woman’s hairstyle and the painting style, this painting is thought to date from the Kansei era (1789–1801). While this accords with the date of the Kyôden inscription, that text includes playful comments about the pleasure quarters, mention of seasonal scenery and Chinese-style poetry, and thus it cannot be said to match this painting.

The Portland Art Museum in the US state of Oregon is one of America’s many museums with a fascinating history. While little known in Japan, this museum houses an impressive Japanese painting and print collection. The majority of these works are ukiyo-e prints, but there are also a considerable number of hanging scrolls, folding screens and paintings in other formats. While our time in Portland was limited and thus we were not able to conduct an exhaustive survey, we were able to survey a number of works in the collection, focusing on the folding screens. We will introduce a selection of the noteworthy examples from our survey in two issues of this journal. This first section of the introduction presents the following five works. 1. Fragment of a Tohokuin Shokunin-uta-awase-e (Poetry Contest of Artisans) Handscroll, Unmounted handscroll fragment, color on paper, H. 26.2 cm, W. 59.3 cm This work is a fragment of a version of the Tohokuin Shokunin-uta-awase-e handscroll that presented 12 pairs of 24 different types of artisans. This fragment shows the sword sharpener and metal founder pairing, with the sword sharpener in the act of sharpening a sword on a whetstone, seen with a bucket filled with water, a whetstone and two swords out of their sheathes. The metal foundry scene shows a person holding a round fan, a flaming brazier in front of an earthen wall-like structure appears to the left front of that person, and part of a person is seen behind that brazier. While the line work and stiff composition suggest that this work is a copy of some traditionally handed down version, this fragment is an important example of a Tohokuin Shokunin-uta-awase-e handscroll that dates back to the Muromachi period (16th century). 2. Birds and Flowers, Six-panel screen, color on paper, H. 156.8 cm, W. 235.0 cm This unsigned birds and flowers screen has been traditionally attributed to Oguri Sôtan, and is a rare example of a bird and flower theme painting that includes elements such as insects and fish. The overall composition and motif arrangement is somewhat haphazard. The colors are generally vivid and lightly applied, and the painter used a relatively limited number of colors. A slight amount of gold paint was used on the work, primarily in the area surrounding the distant hills in the composition’s upper left. The painting reveals the influence of various painting schools, including the Kanô school, and we would like to suggest that it was produced sometime around the mid to late 16th century by a painter who worked in older styles and was not a member of the mainstream art schools of the day. 3. The Arrival of the Europeans, Pair of six-panel screens, color on gold ground on paper, each screen H. 153.9 cm, W. 359.6 cm The left screen shows cargo being unloaded from a European galleon that had arrived in Japan from overseas. The right screen shows a procession of the foreigners from the ship on land, and Japanese residents and officials welcoming them. The screens bear neither signature nor seals to identify their painter and no provenance information to clarify their history accompanied the work into the Portland collection. The figural and architectural expression is close to that of the Kanô school, exhibiting neither stylistic breakdown nor imitation of an older style. Conversely, the depiction of the rocks, trees and waves does not suggest Kanô style, while also avoiding imitation of an earlier style. This painting can be thought to date to the first half of the 17th century, which makes it a relatively old and good example of the so-called Namban Screen genre in a collection outside of Japan. 4. The “Nowaki” Chapter of the Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari), Two-panel screen, color on paper, H. 146.8 cm, W. 168.8 cm This two-panel screen made up of five tiers of painting paper presents a scene from “Nowaki” (Typhoon), the 28th chapter of the Tale of Genji. The morning after the typhoon, known as nowaki, young girls are shown in Akikonomu no Chûgû’s garden of the Rokujôin residence, giving water to insects in their cages. The bamboo fence-enclosed garden expands in front of a diagonally arranged building, while a stream can be seen in the upper right. There are five girls in the garden, and two women appear on the narrow veranda alongside the garden. All seven figures have somewhat long jaws and plump cheeks, unlike the more usual hikime-kagihana slit-eyes-and-hook-nose facial depiction method. Painted in a gentle style with pale ink for the overall forms, the outlines of the eyes, upper eyelid, nostrils, and mouth are all drawn in dark ink. Tale of Genji screens were frequently produced from the early pre-modern era onwards by a range of different painting schools and this screen can be seen as a work from the first half of the 17th century depicting a single chapter from the tale. 5. Itsukushima and Famous Sites of Ômi, Pair of six-panel screens, color on gold ground on paper, each screen 143.1 cm, W. 341.5 cm The left screen of this pair depicts Itsukushima, while the right screen presents the famous sites of the Ômi region. This pair of screens can be thought to be one example of the many pairs of six-panel screens created in the 17th century that combine images of Itsukushima with those of Amanohashidate or Wakanoura. More so than a tendency towards accurately depicting the actual scenery or temple and shrine architecture, this pair of screen seems to be a case of an artist depicting groups of figures at will in scenery that looked somehow familiar. The paintings present a mixture of stylistic elements from various schools, and thus it can be surmised that a machi-eshi (town painter for hire) painted this work.

In the history of Japanese painting, as society changed from a medieval to a pre-modern structure, a taste developed for realistic expression and genre scenes that reflected the interests of the emerging military and wealthy urban classes. The group of works created from the latter half of the 16th century to the first half of the 17th century, and referred to as early pre-modern genre paintings, focused on the depicting of people as they are, their everyday lives and customs. This trend marked a turning point in painterly expression. On the other hand, the painters and circumstances of very few of these early pre-modern genre paintings are known. The study of these works has relied primarily on comparisons of motifs and painting style, in order to evaluate the works. In genre paintings, all of the major subjects of Japanese painting, whether figures, birds and flowers or landscapes, are depicted either in actual settings or as paintings within paintings. These diverse motifs at times surpass simple stylistic divisions, and thus create problems that hinder the development of an overall study of the group from the study of individual works. However, there are quite a few clear points in common that can be found unexpectedly in otherwise different works. On the other hand, depictions that seem to be similar can in fact reflect decidedly different methods or expression. The National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo has developed research methods and used these on continuing surveys of large numbers of cultural properties. The Institute has conducted a survey of the National Treasure Hikone Screen (Hikone Castle Museum) as an example of early pre-modern genre paintings and published a report on the study findings. This study clarified the aspects of this work not fully understood by art historical study, such as the detail depiction, characteristics of the expressive style, and the color instructions that speak of the production process. Now our research must continue to develop on the work, in order to answer such questions as, how did these particular expressions and techniques spread, how were they received by collectors and other paintings, and other such matters. From an awareness of these issues, there is a need to develop a survey study focused on works that resemble both the subject and period of the Hikone Screen. Through a study jointly conducted with The Tokugawa Art Museum, survey studies are progression on pre-modern genre paintings, such as Genre Figures (said to depict the romance between Senhime and her husband Honda Heihachirô, Important Cultural Property, The Tokugawa Art Museum), and Scenes of a Kabuki Performance (Important Cultural Property, The Tokugawa Art Museum). Each of these paintings presents its own depicted world, and the artist chose the appropriate materials and methods to depict their respective scenes. High-definition digital photography confirmed characteristics of their line work, the state of pigment layers, and detailed expression. This process brought all of the characteristics of these works to light, and has thus added valuable material that can set standards for the evaluation of these and other works.

This exhibition review takes as its subject the exhibition entitled Paintings of Korea's Joseon Dynasty and Japan: The Art of a neighboring Kingdom that inspired Sôtatsu, Taiga and Jakuchû, held from November 2008 through July 2009 at the Tochigi Prefectural Art Museum, Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, Sendai City Museum, and Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art. The novel aspect of this exhibition was not only the overview of Joseon dynasty painting, but also the detailed display of the influence of that painting on Japanese painting from the 15th to the 19th centuries. The exhibition featured works never before publicly displayed in Japan, and it was intentionally planned with the realization that the aims of the exhibition would raise certain issues. The exhibition was divided into two sections, with the first section Glory of Joseon dynasty painting, presenting an overview of Joseon dynasty paintings from the 14th through the 19th centuries. The first section also indicated the possibility that there are works that have been handed down as examples of Chinese or Japanese Muromachi period paintings that might actually be Korean paintings. The second section Aspects of Joseon dynasty painting from Japan, examined the influence of Korean painting on Japanese painting. While a large amount of earlier research has explored the influence of Chinese paintings on Japanese painting history, there has been almost no discussion of the influence of Korean paintings. This exhibition intentionally featured works that have shared subjects, expressive methods and techniques, and allowed visitors an opportunity to compare Korean paintings with Japanese paintings. The problems with this exhibition were related to its scale, with too many different periods and genres covered, but this article considers two particularly impressive points in terms of research on Edo period painting. The first point is the subject of the painting of puppies seen on the cover of the catalogue. In the exhibition, images of dogs by the painter of the cover work, Yi Am, active in the 16th century, were arrayed next to those by Tawaraya Sôtatsu, Itô Jakuchû, and Yosa Buson. Because the artists all had access to earlier model images of dogs painted in the Chinese academic bird and flower painting style, a simple relationship between Korean and Japanese dog paintings cannot be educed. Indeed, one can broaden the comparison to works from China, Korea and Japan, and further afield to East Asia, noting similar developments in expression. If we are to grasp the flow from the limited number of extant works on this subject, then the playful puppies who were pictorial images of pet dogs kept at China's imperial court were painted in more familiar detail during the Joseon dynasty, while in the Edo period, Sôtatsu simply took the form as a cutout, idealized motif. Similarly, it can be said that Jakuchû extracted a new sense of the life force in his method of the propagation of the single image of a dog into multiples of the same size. The second point is related to the experiment of considering the influence of Joseon painting on the works of Itô Jakuchů. Seven paintings by Jakuchû, the largest number of any painter in the exhibition, were included in the show. The works allowed a consideration of the possibility that the “unique thematic, compositional and methodological creativity” previously observed in Jakuchû in fact represented influence from Korean painting. Indeed, there are some works by Jakuchû not included in the exhibition that reflect similarities with Joseon paintings, and this is an important point for consideration that urges a reexamination of the establishment of Jakuchû's painting style. On the other hand, the comparison with Joseon works did allow the particularly Jakuchû painting expression characteristics to become visible. The painters of the Edo period had many ways of receiving information and we can imagine that they reflected these information sources in the creation of their own paintings. Undoubtedly Joseon painting was one such source. This exhibition provided an overview of Joseon painting and was also an important opportunity to consider the various expression in Edo period painting amidst the development of art in East Asia.

The Hikone Castle Museum and the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, conducted an optical survey of the National Treasure-designated Hikone Screen in fiscal 2006-2007. The survey indicated that there was effective pigment differentiation based on careful compositional considerations, and that the figures' facial features, details, garments and furnishings were painted to an amazingly detailed fashion. The report of this survey was published and an international symposium, entitled Capturing the “Original”: Archives for Cultural Properties, was held in fiscal 2008 as a result. The study shed light on the relationship between the Hikone Screen and several other works in terms of specific points of resemblance, and it also raised important questions about the significance of the coloring and depictive methods of the Hikone Screen in the history of Japanese painting overall. Here the author explored the depiction of elements strikingly characteristic of the period such as the Nagoya-style obi, the purple leather tabi, the smoking equipment and samisen as found in the Hikone Screen and other early pre-modern genre scene paintings. The Nagoya-style obi and purple leather tabi were fashionable early in the 17th century and these elements were thus understood to have been painted in a limited and intentional fashion in these paintings. Ihara Saikaku's novel Five Women Who Loved Love, published in 1686, intentionally depicted purple leather tabi as a relic of a former age, thus confirming that leather tabi in fact had only been a passing fad. Further, the 1813 Kottôshû historical research book by Santô Kyoden indicated the Nagoya-style obi and purple leather tabi were fashionable around the Kan'ei era (1624-44), and also investigated the changes that took place in the shape and form of the samisen. It is thus known that these special characteristics accord almost entirely amongst early pre-modern genre paintings. It is clear that the Hikone Screen contains a number of old-fashioned motifs given that it dates from approximately the Kan'ei era. This feature is shared with two other works that share many points in common with the Hikone Screen, namely, Scene of a Card Game (Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University) and Genre Figures, which is said to depict the romance between Lady Senhime and her husband Honda Heihachirô (The Tokugawa Art Museum). Further, it is possible that the main characters who both died young in Scene of a Card Game and Genre Figures were depicted after their deaths. In the past, it was understood that early pre-modern genre paintings depicted figures in the style of their day, but these three works not only depict clothing fashions at the very end of their favor, but also seem to show a nostalgic trend. Future studies will require a detailed examination of the depictions in each individual work. Only a portion of the visual images obtained in the joint research project on the Hikone Screen were published in the report. Color images, near infrared imagery, 470 macro images of the entire work, and 394 examples of x-ray flourescence pigment materials analysis are currently being prepared for web browser availability, due to be finished during the current fiscal year. It is hoped that public availability of these materials will contribute to advances in scholarship.

This article introduces Scenes from the Tale of the Soga Brothers, a pair of six-panel screens by Tosa Mitsuyoshi, today in the Watanabe Art Museum (Tottori city). These works have long been of interest but for many years their whereabouts were unknown. Their appearance now is a long-awaited event. These screens are considered the oldest extant painting example of Scenes from the Tale of the Soga Brothers and they are an important work in the study of Tosa Mitsuyoshi, whose overall oeuvre is not yet fully understood. The works are in particularly fine condition and their intricately elegant and lovely depiction reveals the high standard of Tosa school narrative painting expression. This article examines the iconography in the screens in line with the text of the Tale of the Soga Brothers while comparing the faces of the figures depicted in the scenes. Further, the article indicates the resemblance between Tosa Mitsuyoshi's expression and painting style with that of paintings by such later generation artists as Sôtatsu and Kôrin. This painting must be considered as a creation at the point where the Tosa style of expression and depictive methods changed, while also indicating how this transformed style became an important aspect of pre-modern Yamato-e painting.

Ogata Kôrin (1658-1716) was born as the second son to the Kyoto kimono merchants, the Karigane-ya, and was raised in a family with very high social and cultural connections. The Karigane-ya numbered amongst their patrons the wife of Tokugawa Hidetada and Tôfukumon’in Masako, the granddaughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu who later became the wife of the Emperor Gomizunoo. The shop was extremely prosperous during Kôrin's great grandfather, grandfather, and father's generations. With the death of Tôfukumon'in, however, the shop's business waned, and Kôrin faced economic difficulties in his mid thirties. Thus Kôrin fell from his position of a wealthy birth, and yet, he turned his early history to good effect, using his creative sensibilities, education and human network as he set out on the path to becoming a painter. Kôrin is known as one of the painters of the pre modern age for whom biographies and related materials remain in great number. The most important of these documents are the Ex-Konishi Family Kôrin Documents. Mention of the various people related to the Nijô family with whom Kôrin would later enjoy close relationships can be found in the Karigane-ya documents among the Ex-Konishi family papers. These documents indicate that Kôrin was a frequent visitor to the residence of Nijô Tsunahira, while the Nijôke-nainai-Gobansho hinamiki diaries record the details of the visitors to and events held at the Nijô household. These all allow the consideration of Kôrin's role in this setting and the human network and events which can be linked to his later artistic production. Kôrin was given the honorary title of hokkyô in 1701, and this held important meaning in his activities as a painter. The majority of extant Kôrin works date from after his receipt of the hokkyô honor, and it should also be indicated that it was possibly the human network of the Nijô family that influenced his receipt of this honor. Further, Kôrin's interactions with Tsunahira's older brother Kujô Sukezane, and his younger brother Nishihonganji Jûnyo, led to his creation of works which were traditionally handed down at Nishihonganji temple and in the Kujô family, namely the Irises Screens (today in the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts), and the late work Peacock and Hollyhocks, formerly in the Kujô family collection and today in a private collection. The article examines the history behind the creation of these works and their formal expression. Kôrin established his own painting style and expression by utilizing to the greatest extent possible his educationally rich family background and the resulting creative sensibilities and human connections.

Purpose Methods and Materials Results Conclusion References Personal Information, Purpose: It is well known that the globus pallidus (GP) shows high signal on T1-WI in the cases of hepatic failure. This phenomenon is believed to be due to deposition of manganese within GP. Susceptibility weighted images (SWI) is very much sensitive to...