Paper short abstract:

This paper will discuss how a new framework of visualising Uji as a tea production site was created in a scroll by Kanō Tansetsu (1655–1714). The scroll shows the negotiation between the traditional connotations of the symbols of Uji and the historical reality of the development of the industry.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will show how a new framework of meisho was created in a scroll by a Kanō painter. The area in question is Uji, the most famous tea production site in early modern Japan. Originally, Uji was already a historic famous place since ancient times for its poetic resonance of waka poetry and religious institutions such as the Byōdō-in Temple. The flourishment and fame of Uji’s tea production industry since the late sixteenth century, however, demanded this time-honoured framework of the landscape to focus on productivity of the industry. By examining the images of a scroll by Kanō Tansetsu (1655–1714), a Kanō school painter who served the shogunate, this paper discusses how this new framework of Uji was delivered through objectifying and displacing the traditional connotations of the symbols of Uji and through the representation characterised by idealised and harmonious labour of men and women, young and old. The figures in the image are the agents who actively transform Uji into the productive land of tea. Added to this was the visualisation of other local customs possibly learnt from published books, which strengthens the impression that the scroll presents the reality of the local area. The scroll was one of the pioneers that produced a new image of Uji as a famous place of tea production.