A rare Japanese long scroll, makimono, depicting people of twenty-four nations, attributed to Jô Girin (act. 1779-1859)

Edo period, early 19th century

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Ink, colour and gold on paper, H. 28.5 x W. 470 cm

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A makimono, literally something that unrolls, is a painted or calligraphic scroll that unrolls horizontally. Makimono are a popular and typical Edo period examples of Japanese storytelling, treating various traditional subjects. The present one depicts a classical theme of inhabitants of various foreign nations.

Here different nations are represented by couples with short calligraphic descriptions. Traditionally the representations of nations are associated with a, Bankoku Sozu, a map of the whole world.

The twenty four peoples represented in the present scroll are, from bottom right to left: Dutch, Persians, Turks, Muscovites, Spaniards, Portuguese, Siamese, Armenians, Hakkas (Banka), Americans, probably Koryaks (Kamchatka), North-Africans, Danes, Hungarians, probably Samarkands (Uzbekistan), Argentinians, Canadians, Taiwanese, Uriankhai (Mongolia), Luzonian (Philippines), Rataran (Mariana Islands), Sumatrans, Italians and Germans.