The Furuyama Moromasa Scroll is now available to view online!

Regular readers of this blog will have kept up with the story of our beautiful 18th century Japanese scroll. We’re now very pleased to report that you can view the full 44ft long scroll in its entirety on Capital Collections!

The scroll dates from the early 1700s and depicts the bustling theatre district of Edo, modern-day Tokyo. The artwork, entitled ‘Theatres of the East’ represents a major discovery in the ‘ukiyo-e’ school of art, and is a detailed illustration of all manner of 18th century Japanese street life.

In the Capital Collections exhibition, you can click on each image to zoom in and browse the incredible detail within each section. See if you can spot the bathhouse, the man in his tower keeping a watchful eye out for fires, a puppet theatre, tightrobe walking acrobats, a dog chasing rats away and even a pantomime horse….

Section from Central Library’s Furuyama Moromasa scroll

Detail showing pantomime horse on stage.

You can catch up on the Scroll story so far with these earlier blog posts:

• Japanese art treasure unearthed in Central Library
• Planes, trains and a 300 year old work of art
• It’s all in the colour

 

Video: our Japanese treasure

The second in our series of short films exploring the Henry Dyer Collection focuses on an extraordinary Japanese artwork from the early eighteenth century.

Thanks to funding from the Sumitomo Foundation the scroll is now being conserved at Restorient Studios in Leiden, but you can see the surrogate scroll, together with other rare items from the an event next month in Central Library

Items from the Henry Dyer Collection is your chance to see some of the most unique items from our collection up close – book now to guarantee yourself a place.

And if you can’t make it along you can always view these close-up images of the scroll, or find out more about Henry Dyer and his connection with Edinburgh City Libraries.

Japanese art treasure unearthed in Central Library

There’s been a lot of excitement surrounding the discovery of a rare Japanese eighteenth century handscroll painting among our collections.

For decades the  44ft long scroll has been held in the Central Library without anyone realising its true significance. Now Edinburgh City Libraries and National Museums Scotland have submitted a joint application to the Sumitomo Foundation for conservation funding with the result expected in March.

The scroll, by Japanese painter Furuyama Moromasa, is over 44ft in length and depicts an extended street scene in C18th Edo, or Tokyo, showing shops, theatres and domestic detail of life at that time.

Dr Rosina Buckland, Senior Curator of National Museums Scotland’s Japanese collections, has worked with Edinburgh City Libraries to help interpret the scroll using her knowledge of the period.

She said: “This handscroll is a fascinating and important work. It presents a wealth of amusing and entertaining scenes of life in Edo (today’s Tokyo) around 1700, as well as plentiful information on the lively world of the popular theatre, and is the only known large handscroll painting by this artist.

“We very much hope that our funding application for specialist conservation work will be successful, so that the painting can be enjoyed by many people in Scotland, and beyond.”

The scroll was gifted to Edinburgh City Libraries in the 1940s by a relative of Henry Dyer, a Scottish engineer who played a major part in the industrialisation of Japan.

Learn more about the scroll, Henry Dyer and other treasures of the library on Capital Collections.