Hanging scrolls are a typical form of Japanese painted art made of heavy paper. Some are very long—almost ceiling to floor. Others are half that size. The painted image does not usually take up the entirety of the scroll: a sizeable band of unpainted but decorated paper frames the top and bottom. The upper space is heaven, the lower, hades, and the middle—the picture—the world examined. A round wooden rod (2 cm in circumference and just a little wider than the scroll) weighs the scroll so it shows no wrinkles and is flat against the wall (if not flat to the wall, the curling edges show that it is modern). The rod is also used to roll up scrolls for storage in their own purpose-made wooden boxes—a way of regularly rotating scrolls in small apartments. Two matching ribbons are affixed to the top of a wall scroll to tie the scroll tightly to the rod. But scrolls are also a fixture in public temples and home altars. A silk fabric-like applique further frames the image itself.
“Sometimes, in place of a scroll, a painting appeared in the alcove, or a beautiful statue, an Ainu tribal mask, or even a piece of driftwood magnificently rotted into lace” Ellis Avery, The TeahouseFire. NY: RiverheadBooks,nd.,127.
So-called “handscrolls” that spread out on a table (makimono) reveal paintings in time (like cartoon frames) as it is unwound by hand (from right to left). Similar handscrolls (emakimono; “picture scrolls” or emaki) tell stories that unfold as the scroll is unwound. One scroll in the collection shows workers in various professions in each frame , and another is devoted to erotic shunga pictures. For traditionalists, scrolls of Buddhist calligraphy should be viewed only once; Thus the rotating of scrolls is acceptable.
There is a wide range of images, usually of nature: birds, fish, tree branches, bamboo, sumi-e-like designs, waterfalls, and cranes. Scrolls are often used in purpose-built Japanese home alcoves that contain a small altar (the collection has two portable altars and one scroll in the collection even after many years still has some scent of the incense used in prayer ceremonies. Given their dimensions, only the pictures of scrolls can be photographed: you need to see the entire scroll in its entirety. The collection has over three dozen, e.g., ranging from very old pre-Edo period (1603 – 1867) and Meiji (1868 – 1912) to newer Taisho (1912 – 1926) and Shōwa (1926 – 1989).