The Azuchi Screens: An Introduction

The Azuchi Screens Research Network (ASRN) is an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars, artists and professionals researching early modern cultural and material exchanges between Europe, Colonial Latin America, and East Asia, with a particular focus on Italy and Japan. The network takes its name from a now-lost pair of folding screens, the Azuchiyama zu byōbu, attributed to the eminent painter Kanō Eitoku (1543–1590). These works are considered one of the most tantalizing missing artworks of early modern global history, believed to be the only visual record of the newly constructed and short-lived Azuchi Castle, residence of Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582). Completed in 1579, the castle was destroyed in 1582 when Nobunaga was killed at Honnōji Temple in Kyoto and his son ordered it burned to prevent capture. Today only its stone walls and stairways survive. Archaeological excavations from 1986–2006, and the new 20-year project launched by Shiga Prefecture in 2023, reveal its extraordinary multi-story design, crowned by a seven-story octagonal tower (tenshukaku) overlooking Lake Biwa. Yet its exact appearance remains uncertain, with the Azuchiyama zu byōbu considered the sole detailed representation. The only Japanese document to mention the screens is the Oyu donoue no nikki, the diary of court ladies serving Emperor Ōgimachi. Jesuit records further confirm their existence: in 1581, Nobunaga presented the screens to Alessandro Valignano (1539–1606), who later dispatched them to Rome with the four youths of the first Tenshō Embassy (1582–1590). On April 4, 1585, the envoys offered the gift to Pope Gregory XIII (1502–1585), who admired it greatly and ordered its display in the open loggia leading to the Belvedere Gardens at the Vatican. Several contemporary chronicles and archival sources in the Vatican and Italian institutions record the boys’ visit and the significance of this extraordinary donation. In this sense, the Azuchi Screens embody both Valignano’s foresigh vision and Nobunaga’s cultural ambition, but above all they represent the earliest material trace of diplomatic exchange between Japan and Europe—a gift whose symbolic power still resonates despite its loss. Building on this legacy, the ASRN now investigates a wider range of artworks—paintings, documents, textiles, and lacquer objects—circulating as diplomatic gifts or devotional items during the Tenshō and Keichō Embassies (1613–1629), including objects brought back to Japan from Europe, India, and China. This presentation provides an overview of research on the Azuchi Screens, beginning with two sessions in 2006–2007 and continuing with the foundation of ASRN in 2018. By bringing together scholars across disciplines, ASRN seeks to explore the material culture that enabled such encounters and to highlight the exceptional but still understudied heritage of East Asian objects that crossed oceans, borders, and cultures.