Kinpaku. Nature, power and imagination in japanese art

Used to cover architectural and sculptural wonders throughout the archipelago, gold leaf, or kinpaku in Japanese, is a handcrafted material that conveys all the charm of gold in Japan. It also forms part of the pieces that make up the exhibition Kinpaku. Japanese Folding Screens and Fans (Biombos y abanicos japoneses), in which, thanks to the generosity of a person who has been “adopted” by Madrid, residents and visitors alike will have a unique opportunity to see a collection of ten folding screens (byôbu, “wind walls”) and sixteen fans from the 16th and 17th centuries, the golden age of Japanese painting, at the Serrería Belga (The Belgian Sawmill). The dominant themes running through the artefacts are nature (Japanese art has a close relationship with the seasons and flowers), power (screens are symbolically associated with authority) and the imagination (fans tend to contain motifs related to the fantastic).

The exhibition is supervised by Hiroyuki Kano, a specialist in painting from the Edo period who has helped organise the exhibition, and Daniel Sastre de la Vega, an expert in Japanese art at the Autonomous University of Madrid. This event is a quite unique experience in the Spanish capital that will immerse visitors in the rich history and aesthetics of Japanese art.