A RARE NANBAN SIX-PANEL BYOBU SCREEN DEPICTING THE ARRIVAL OF A PORTUGUESE SHIP Japan, 18th-19th century, Edo period (1615-1868) Finely painted in ink, watercolors, and gold on paper to depict a Portuguese ship arriving at the port of Nagasaki. The ship is filled with passengers and sailors, some of which perform acrobatic feats as they prepare to dock. A number of smaller boats are approaching land as well, while two boats which are heavily filled with goods are departing. A group of Portuguese men are carrying large boxes and leading a spotted deer toward a bridge, one of the men appears to shrug as he tries to communicate with two Japanese men. The two rightmost panels show a chaotic scene of numerous Japanese and Portuguese men carrying goods in all directions, as well as a fenced terrace with Portuguese noblemen seated at a table and enjoying tea and wine. The screen is further decorated with thick, gold-sprinkled clouds. SIZE (when opened) 88 x 259 cm Condition: Good condition with some wear, minor soiling, occasional light scratches, and few small losses. The scene presents a narrative of the dynamic conflation of East and West around 1600. Portuguese traders reached Japan in 1543, and by 1570 they had selected the Bay of Nagasaki as the ideal natural harbor for the center of their commerce, which was conducted with little or no restriction. The Portuguese nau do trato was known to the Japanese as the kurofune (black ship) or nanban bune, ship of the Nanban, or Southern Barbarians, so called because these foreigners arrive from the south. (The term originated in China, where all foreigners were regarded as barbarians.) The Portuguese made large profits selling Chinese silk to the Japanese in exchange for silver. Some European goods were traded, but for the most part the Iberians served as middlemen between the Chinese and Japanese. The great ship was a three-deck carrack of up to 1,600 tons, and its enormous size and exotic crew and cargo were the cause of much wonder and excitement. The earliest screen of this type is thought to date from the 1590s and is attributed to Kano Mitsunobu (1561/5–1608), who was called from Kyoto to decorate Hideyoshi`s Nagoya Castle in northern Kyushu. Mitsunobu may have traveled to Nagasaki to observe the “Southern Barbarians” first hand. The fad for Nanban screens continued into the second quarter of the seventeenth century. The novel subject fascinated the Japanese, and the Kano-school atelier as well as other professional painting studios in Kyoto made numerous versions in the early seventeenth century for clientele prepared to enjoy the strange costumes and odd physiognomy of these tall, hairy and long-nosed Southern Barbarians, a throwback to the outlandish imagery familiar from the iconography of Daoist immortals. Museum comparison: Compare to a related pair of Nanban screens, dated to the first quarter of the 17th century, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession no. 2015.300.109.1, .2. Auction comparison: Compare to a related important Namban screen, dated to the 17th century, sold at Christie`s, European Courts Encounter Japan, 11 May 2015, London, lot 8 ( sold for 818,500 GBP ).