Excerpt from Selected Relics of Japanese Art, Vol. 15

In each of the six panels there was depicted a beautiful lady standing under a tree the locks of her hair and her garments were done with feathers, but the feathers have mostly been torn off and now but little trace of them is to be seen save outlines. Some time ago, when repairing these screens, a paper was found inside of one which contained, in writing, the date 26th day, 6th month. 4th year of tempyo-shoho (august loth. From this, it is to be understood that these panels were made at some time between the 4th and the 8th years of tempyo-shoho. The faces and hands of the persons were painted in c010urs, but wherever feathers had been irsed for decorative purpose, there is nothing now but simple lines. It is probable that the trees and rocks were done in monochrome from the very first. We may distinctly trace the brushwork of these pictures. And hence get a good idea of the character of pictorial art at that time! Although it was in an undeveloped state, we are led to suppose, from the method of depicting the complex character of trees and rocks, that probably they were copied from natural obiects: while the manner of representing the fissures in the rocks, suggests the influence of landscape artists of the T'ang dynasty, China. The lady playing with a jewel-shaped ball under a tree, shows the costume of the time: in this respect, it resembles the picture of Suri-devi, reproduced in the second volume of this series, and it is to be supposed that her face shows the ideal type of female beauty during the Nara era: from the suggestion of rouge on the flee, the thin black lines of the artificial high-eyebrows, the garments, and the style of dressing the hair, we get many an interesting glimpse at the customs of that remote time. Besides this: in the catalogue, the screen is described as being made with feathers, with some square Chinese ideographs on the folding-panels, and some Chinese literary compositions, all of the same material.

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