An album of Miniature Hanging Scrolls

This album of Miniature Hanging Scrolls is a selection of paintings and calligraphies from Central Library's Dyer Collection.

Edinburgh City Libraries received two donations of the Henry Dyer Collection in 1945 and 1955, gifted by Marie Ferguson Dyer in honour of her father Henry Dyer. These donations together consisted of 50 loose sheets of Japanese woodblock prints, a number of bound woodblock printed volumes, albums of paintings and calligraphies, scrolls and a collection of late 19th Century Japanese photographs attributed to Baron von Stillfried. The remainder of the Dyer Collection was gifted to the Mitchell Library (Glasgow) and Glasgow Museums (Nitshill).

This album comprises 76 pages of miniature paintings (and some calligraphies), the majority by artists of the Kano lineage, who worked for the ruling military regime. Each work is signed and sealed in miniature, and has been given a full brocade mounting as if it were a hanging scroll.

Some of the artists represented are Kano Tan'en Morizane (1805-1853), the eighth-generation head of the Kajibashi atelier; Kano Eitoku Tatsunobu (1814-1891), the head of the Nakabashi atelier; and Kano Tohaku Norinobu (n.d.), the 7th-generation head of the Surugadai atelier.

Information about the volume and artists kindly provided by Dr Rosina Buckland (National Museum of Scotland).

Find out more about Central Library's Dyer Collection from the Tales of one city blog.