Scenes in and around Kyoto (Funaki Version)

This pair of six-panel folding screens packs the city of Kyoto and its people tightly onto a gold ground. It is color on paper with a gold ground, and each screen measures 162.7 x 342.4 cm. It is designated a National Treasure.

Many Rakuchu-Rakugai ("in and around Kyoto") screens come as a set: one screen shows the eastern half of the city seen from the west, and the other shows the western half seen from the east. This work instead shows only the center of Kyoto, seen from the south. A river running diagonally toward the lower right links the two screens. It is the Kamo River, which flows north to south along the east side of Kyoto; the area west of it (left) is Rakuchu, the city proper, and the area east of it (right) is Rakugai, the outskirts. At the far right stands the Great Buddha Hall of Hoko-ji Temple, built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and at the far left is Nijo Castle of the Tokugawa clan, so that the two face each other across the city.

The screens show about 2,500 people. On Gojo Ohashi Bridge, a group that seems to be returning from cherry blossom viewing dances with fans and cherry branches, and at the rear a drunken man is held up by his companions on both sides, while a boatman under the bridge looks up in surprise. There is also the pleasure of looking for sights and events that can still be visited today, such as Sanjusangen-do, Kiyomizu-dera, Yasaka Shrine, and the Gion Festival.

The artist, Iwasa Matabei, was a painter who worked in Kyoto, Fukui, and Edo from the Azuchi-Momoyama period into the early Edo period, and he excelled at lively depictions of people. Because the screens were handed down in the Funaki family of Shiga, they are affectionately known as the "Funaki Version."