Floating Dragon Floor Screen, embroidered on golden silk

In Asian mythology dragons floated through the clouds working their way between heaven and earth; they also ruled the oceans and seas; but they didn’t breathe fire. That right was reserved for the dragons of medieval stories and the literature of fantasy, where dragons could reduce anything to charred embers and flew in death defying, acrobatic swirls, their tails nothing less than lethal whips. Dragons are even among us today, the Desolation of Smaug and How to Train Your Dragon both being big hits at the box office. Dragons seem to be everywhere – except in reality.

This Ryu, or Dragon, twists across the four-panels of this folding screen

This week’s New Arrival features a Japanese folding screen called a Byobu, which literally translates as “Protection from the Wind.” Delicately and masterfully embroidered on a golden silk background, it features one single element – a wingless, serpentine, three-clawed golden dragon named Ryu, the ruler of water and the emblem of heroes. Look closely; this Ryu twists and rolls, looking backward and forward at the same time. Having risen from the water it looks like it wants to return, but it is so lifelike, so perfectly rendered, it appears suspended, stuck in our reality rather than its own.

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