This pair of folding screens contains a panoramic view of Kyoto with the Imperial Palace on the left to the right panel and Nijo Castle at the center of the left. Decorative golden clouds  owing above the streets, hills seen at the bottom of the right panel, and three-story warehouses here and there appear rather distinctive. These features are found in common to the Scenes in and around Kyoto (Rakuchu-rakugai zu) designated as Important Cultural Property in the collection of Hayashibara Museum. One significant difference between the two is the location of the castle tower of Nijo Castle. Constructed as Tokugawa Ieyasu’s residence in 1603, Nijo Castle  rst had the tower to its northwest. In 1626, in order to welcome Emperor Gomizuno’o’s imperial visit, the castle was expanded towards the west, and the tower was rebuilt to the southwest of the castle. In the Hayashibara screens, the tower is depicted in the former position, while in the present work, the view of the latter. Therefore, the view of the Hayashibara screens can be dated pre-1626, while that of the present screens, post-1626.

Emperor Gomizuno’o’s imperial visit took place on the sixth day of the ninth month of 1626. After Empress Masako and her courtiers’ departure for Nijo Castle, the shogun and his attendants visited the Emperor at the Imperial Palace. They were greeted with sake from the Emperor, and turned back to Nijo Castle. After the shogun left, the Emperor also set o  to Nijo Castle with his courtiers. In the left screen, the procession of the shogun are on their way back to Nijo Castle. The sho- gun is on a carriage drawn by two oxen, guided by a guard with a long sword, and with his horse following at the back. In the right screen, the Emperor is about to leave for Nijo Castle on his imperial carriage. Depiction of the Emperor’s departure scene extends over two panels, in comparison to the four portraying the Shogun’s procession in the left screen. This contrasting composition is by no means accidental, for a number of other Rakuchu-rakugai zu examples are known. By highlighting the representation of the shogun, these capitalscape screens eventually prioritized the political and social status of the shogunate over the emperor. These screens might have been commissioned and appreciated by samurai-class patrons.

There are two other pairs of folding screens considered belonging to the Hayashibara screen lineage: one was included in the 2015 exhibition Miyako o egaku: Rakuchu-rakugai zu no jidai (Depicting the capital: the Age of Rakuchu-rakugai zu) at the Museum of Kyoto; the other is in the collection of Suntory Museum of Art. These two works, together with the present screens, can be viewed as a closely- related group, for they greatly assimilate each other, despite certain differences. The Museum of Kyoto screens represents the castle tower to the northwest of Nijo Castle, implying its pre-1626 view, same as the Hayashibara screens. Whereas in the Sun- tory Museum screens, Nijo Castle is notably depicted smaller in comparison to the present work. The procession in front of the castle must be Empress Masako’s. However, there are three two-oxen-drawn carriages among the procession in the Suntory Museum screens, which appears historically inaccurate, for only the empress’s carriage was drawn by two oxen. Kano Hiroyuki points out that the Suntory Museum screens looks “unreal” in comparison to the present work, and thus was likely to be “produced towards the end of the Kan’ei period [1624–1643]”. The present work, therefore, may be dated to the earlier years of the Kan’ei period.