Image: Hyōgo Prefectural Museum of Art
An Edo-period folding screen depicting the ‘Mitsuyama Taisa’ festival at Itatehyozu Shrine in Himeji has been designated a Hyogo Prefectural cultural property, according to the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art’s post identifying the work as ‘Harima no Kuni Sosha Mitsuyama Sairei-zu Byobu.’ The museum’s notice identifies the screen as an Edo-period work now recognized by the prefecture for its cultural value.
The image shared by the museum centers on the festival atmosphere surrounding the shrine’s ‘Mitsuyama Taisai’ or temporary festival, a local ritual associated with Itatehyozu Shrine in Himeji City. The source material does not provide details on the screen’s dimensions, artist, provenance, or the circumstances of the designation beyond the fact of its prefectural cultural-property status.
‘Harima no Kuni Sosha Mitsuyama Sairei-zu Byobu’ is presented by the museum as a historical document as well as an art object, preserving a visual record of a festival that remains tied to a specific shrine and region. The title itself refers to Harima Province and the Sosha, or combined shrine, associated with the ceremony depicted on the folding screen.
The designation places the work within the framework of Hyogo Prefecture’s efforts to recognize and protect cultural assets with historical and artistic significance. In this case, the museum’s announcement emphasizes the screen’s connection to the living religious and ceremonial life of Himeji rather than offering a broader interpretive statement about Edo-period painting.
The museum post gives the work in Japanese as ‘播磨国総社三ツ山祭礼図屏風’ and identifies its period as Edo. It also names the location of the festival scene as Itatehyozu Shrine, writing the shrine in Japanese with furigana-style guidance in the original post.
No exhibition venue, display schedule, or public viewing details were included in the source material. The notice is limited to the identification of the work and the fact of its newly designated cultural-property status in Hyogo Prefecture.
