According to a report published by the Ekingura Management Committee in 2013, about 200 folding screens of Kabuki stories still exist in Kōchi Prefecture. Many of them are in the form of two-panel folding screens, and a small number of framed are included. A few are stored in public museums, but most of them are still managed by shrines, public halls, residents’ associations, neighborhood associations, etc., because they have been displayed at shrines during the summer festivals. The custom of displaying folding screens at shrines during summer festivals was inherited even after Ekin’s death in 1876, and it is said that new folding screens were made for summer festivals even after the beginning of the Shōwa era. As a result, the various individualities of Ekin and his disciples can be seen in the remaining folding screens. The folding screens owned by four districts of Akaoka-chō, Kōnan City (stored by Ekingura) are displayed in this chapter. They are famous as Ekin’s standard works and masterpieces. These folding screens are displayed under the eaves of the shopping district every year at the Suruda Hachimangū Shrine Festival on July 14th and 15th and the Tosa Akaoka Ekin Festival on the third weekend of July.

In addition, Ekin’s paintings of historical figures in the style of the Kano school are exhibited in this chapter, as well as picture scrolls of Kabuki stories and annual events and a picture book depicting the great earthquake that struck Tosa in 1854. We introduce a variety of works other than folding screens of Kabuki play.

It is not clear when the custom of displaying folding screens by Ekin at shrine summer festivals began, but a folding screen storage box with the date of 1858 (Ansei 5) has been confirmed. Judging from the number of surviving folding screens, it seems that it became quite popular after the end of the Edo period. At present, we can see the scenery of the summer festivals at about 10 shrines, where folding screens are traditionally displayed. However, due to the aging of the parishioners of the shrine and the deterioration of the condition of the folding screens, the numbers are decreasing year by year.

Six large pedestals for displaying folding screens are assembled on the approach to the shrine at the summer festival of Asakura Shrine in Asakura, Kōchi City on July 24th every year, and the sight of them lined up facing the front shrine is spectacular. Hachiōjigū Shrine in Tosa Yamada-chō, Kami City has a large pedestal “Te-naga Ashi-naga Ema Dai” for displaying five folding screens, which were recently exhibited at the summer festival held on July 24th and 25th, 2019. A pedestal was also assembled at the summer festival of Atago Shrine in Haruno-chō, Kōchi City on August 5th, but it was canceled in 2022. In this exhibition, the pedestals of these shrines are reproduced in the exhibition room, and the Ema lanterns, which are another feature of Kōchi’s summer festivals, are displayed. Ema lanterns, also called Andon-e, were renewed every year, so there are very few existing, and a 24-piece set of Ema lanterns “Kamagafuchi Futatsu Domoe” was recently discovered.

This chapter introduces Ekin’s works other than folding screens, picture scrolls and hanging scrolls, as well as works by painters who were deeply involved with Ekin.

There were many disciples who studied under Ekin in each period of official painter and town painter. The inscription on the tombstone of Mr. and Mrs. Ekin (Yūchikusai Meoto Haka) on a mountainside in Azōno, Kōchi City reads, “Several hundred people, including disciples and those who received the skill, practiced the painting method.”　Kawada Shōryō was the foremost intellectual in Tosa at the time, and presented the lord of the Tosa domain with a record of drifting, “Hyōsonki Ryaku,” which he wrote after hearing from John Manjirō, who had returned from the United States. He also had a relationship with Sakamoto Ryōma. Noguchi Sagan, a dyer in Noichi (currently Noichi-chō, Kōnan City), was called “Noichi Ekin” because his real name was Kinzō.

It was customary to hang a banner with a picture of a warrior or Kabuki play in front of the gate on the first boy’s festival in Tosa. Since most of them are made of paper, there are very few existing. “Yūchikusai,” one of Ekin’s names, is written on “Ōmi Genji Senjin Yakata, Moritsuna Jinya” along with a haiku poem. Therefore, it is a valuable work that shows the standards of Ekin.