The Material Culture of the Tenshō (1582-1590) and Keichō (1612-1620) missions

The Japanese NHK (Japanese Broadcasting Company) and the French Gedeon are working to produce a documentary reporting the research outcomes of the Azuchi Screens Research Network (ASRN), an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars and artists dedicated to researching early-modern cultural and material exchange between Europe, Colonial Latin America, and East Asia, with a special focus on Italy and Japan. This includes, notably, two famous endeavours that brought Japanese people to Europe, the so-called Tenshō (1582-1590) and Keichō (1612-1620) missions. The Tenshō (1582-1590) mission brought a famous, and now lost, pair of folding screens by Kanō Eitoku, from which the network’s name is taken. Paola Cavaliere is part of the scientific committee overseeing the documentary project.