Name: Oriental Art: Japanese Nanban Art Set, 6 Pieces
Brand: Shift2ThriftVintage
SKU: Listing 065-June-2026
Price: 7850.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock

Oriental Art: Japanese Nanban Art Set, 6 Pieces

Beautiful vintage six-piece Japanese Nanban Art Set.

This incredible master collection features an intact three-piece raw-edge vertical triptych series alongside three beautifully coordinated framed focal masterworks.

Together, they feature high-fidelity, highly textured lithographic reproductions of the legendary 17th-century Nanban Byōbu (folding screen) masterpieces by Master Kanō Naizen.

Original Intended Use: Premium Showa-era architectural modular panel artworks or luxury decorative screen components.

Alternate Suggested Use: An ultimate high-concept visual anchor for a moody brutalist office, a crowning focal gallery display for a luxury living room, or styled across floating library shelves.

The collection unfolds into a spectacular historical narrative across six individual chapters:

Panel 1 (The Landing Block): Raw-edge plaque illustrating the disembarking longboat party being greeted on the stone quayside by black-robed Christian Jesuit missionaries.
Panel 2 (The Captain Block): Raw-edge portrait plaque magnification of a high-ranking Portuguese Captain-Major (Capitão-Mór) in ruffled collars and traditional cloud-scroll balloon trousers.
Panel 3 (The Procession Block): Raw-edge plaque capturing the grand street procession under a multi-tiered ceremonial umbrella, complete with an exotic Arabian horse and an elegant leashed white greyhound dog.
Panel 4 (The Framed Grand Black Ship): Tall framed panel depicting the massive Portuguese Black Ship (Nau do Trato) riding deep indigo ocean waves. Features a straight vertical screen hinge seam line down the center and the authentic black kanji signature stamp reading (Kanō Naizen hitsu)"Painted by Kanō Naizen"in the lower right corner.
Panel 5 (The Framed Equestrian Nobleman): Tall framed panel capturing a Portuguese captain galloping along coastal paths on a majestic piebald horse, his green cloak billowing wildly.
Panel 6 (The Framed Shore Entourage): Panoramic framed panel beautifully capturing an elite entourage of Portuguese merchants, officers, and a black-robed Jesuit priest walking along the shore after stepping off their ship's longboat.

The three premium framed masterworks are housed in their original mid-century wood-moulded frames, accented by an elegant, twisted gold-rope inner bezel inlay that catches the light spectacularly.

All six components feature a deep, uniform lacquer-crackle treatment over the faces.

The original Nanban screens were created in Japan during the brief century of open trade with the West (15431614) before the Tokugawa shogunate closed the borders.

Elite Japanese merchants commissioned these screens to serve as powerful good-luck charms for their estates. Because they depicted exotic, high-value cargo ships and wealthy incoming traders, they were explicitly treated as talismans believed to physically clear away financial obstacles and rapidly attract global wealth, maritime fortune, and commercial abundance directly into the home!

Vintage mid-century Showa-era groupings of this scale are fiercely sought after. Displaying all six pieces together builds an elite, cohesive mid-century Hollywood Regency gallery wall that is impossible to replicate.

Made in Japan, Circa 1960s.

Each piece is researched with care and supported by comprehensive historical notes drawn from available sources, comparative analysis, and archival references. While I am not a certified appraiser or authentication specialist, my attributions reflect careful independent research and may be refined as new evidence emerges. These notes are offered to enrich understanding and appreciation of each item, rather than as formal guarantees of age, provenance, or authenticity.

(Per Raw-Edge Block Panel x3): Height 29cm, Length 21.5cm, Width 1.2cm.
(Per Large Framed Panel x2): Height 31.5cm, Length 25.2cm, Width 1.8cm.
(Per Panoramic Framed Panel x1): Height 19.5cm, Length 25.2cm, Width 1.8cm.

Great vintage condition with honest, authentic age-related wear. All six panels are structurally rock-solid, completely flat and straight. The printed faces retain beautiful, rich colour saturation with a glorious uniform gloss shine over the craquelure treatment. All three wood frames remain structurally tight and sound.

Visible Flaws: Age-related wear.
No structural cracks or image face tears. Honest vintage inspection reveals light, minor friction wear and tiny superficial flecks/rub marks along the exposed perimeter edges and corners of the three raw-edge triptych blocks.

The reverse primer coating on the standalone portrait block shows normal, light cosmetic water-tinting marks, and the procession block features a small, superficial surface abrasion/chip on the back-left hardboard matrix (completely invisible when hung).

The framed Equestrian panel shows light vintage surface scuffing and minor cosmetic glaze clouding across the dark indigo sky region above the cloak under direct light.

The framed Black Ship panel features two distinct areas of edge surface paper wear along the top border under the rope rim: a small white chip on the upper right exposing the gesso base layer, and a small angular surface flake/peel mark along the upper left-central margin.

The framed Shore Entourage panel features a scattering of tiny, faint white speckles across the top-right gold cloud layer, which are original factory-born lacquer pinholes or minor glaze pops from production. Its underside unglazed backboard shows light cosmetic storage stains, moisture ghosting, and a small corner compression ding to the backing board structure which is completely surface-level and structural-safe.

R 7,850.00

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