Page 180 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

than two thousand figures. Although the of leyasu's victory at Sekigahara, the battle in the Tokyo National Museum, shows a
right and left screens are not continuous, also was a contest between old and new horse stable and may be seen as a precur-
they represent the temporal sequence of weapons. A study by the late George San- sor of horse stable screens like this work.
events at Sekigahara. Many of the pasted- som provides the following statistics on This set of screens is stylistically attributed
down rectangular cartouches (nineteen on the army of 3,000 men dispatched by Date to the Kano studio, although to no specific
the right screen and eight on the left) erro- Masamune (1567-1636), daimyo of Sendai, artist. The stylized silhouettes of the
neously identify places, and the specific to aid leyasu: 420 were cavalry men, 1,200 horses recall a painting of a single horse,
identities of troops, the garrison camps of carried firearms (matchlock guns), 850 car- datable to no later than 1521 (cat. 82). Judg-
individual daimyo, and the individual per- ried spears, and 200 carried bows. Clearly, ing from the number of surviving works,
sons engaged in combat cannot be estab- by 1600 the most effective weapons were this type of screen painting of horses in a
lished with certainty. The painting and firearms, followed by spears, bows, and stable was popular throughout the six-
written accounts also disagree on particu- last, swords, the least effective. YS teenth century among upper-class war-
lars such as leyasu's outfit. According to riors. These screens inform us how horses,
one historical record, leyasu rode into the 105 Horse stable important properties of the warrior class,
final battle wearing a European-style cui- pair of six-fold screens; ink, color, and were kept in a residential setting. YS
rass (nanbando), mounted on a white stal- gold leaf on paper
lion. Yet he appears here among the each 149.5 355-5 (587/8 140) 106 Training horses and horse stable
x
x
victorious eastern troops (center of panel Muromachi period, c. 1560 pair of six-fold screens; ink, color, and
one, left screen) wearing indigenous black gold leaf on paper
armor and a helmet with a large hornlike Tokyo National Museum each 154.0 x 355.0 (6o5/s x 1393/4)
kuwagata. (leyasu also appears in panel Important Cultural Property Edo period, early iyth century
four of the right screen.)
These screens are attributed to Tosa These screens depict six well-bred and Taga Taisha, Shiga Prefecture
Mitsuyoshi (1539-1613) on the basis of well-groomed horses tethered in six stable Important Cultural Property
style, and are known as the Tsugaru bydbu compartments, each corresponding to one
(screens) because they were transmitted in of the three inner panels of the screens. In the right screen three horses are being
the Tsugaru family, the castellans of Hiro- The stable, seen from the back, is set in a tried out by the trainers; another horse,
saki Castle in Aomori Prefecture. The well-kept garden with exotic pitted rocks held by three grooms, nervously awaits its
screens were part of a trousseau taken to and blue ponds with cranes and white her- turn. Two others, tethered to posts, anx-
the family by Tokugawa leyasu's adopted ons; a pine and a cherry tree flank the iously rub the ground with their fore-
daughter, Matehime, when she became gable ends of the building. A group of hooves. From a room in a sizable mansion,
the bride of Tsugaru Nobuhira (1586-1631), courtiers, warriors, and monks relax play- the scene is observed by a man, perhaps a
in 1611 or 1612. According to a Tsugaru ing the games of go, shdgi, and sugoroku daimyo or a high-ranking warrior, who
(double six) in a
totami-matted
seating
clan document, leyasu owned four screens leans against an armrest, relaxed, and at-
depicting Sekigahara, of which Matehime area. Saddles and stirrups rest on racks, tended by boy servants. On the veranda of
took the two shown here. The composi- and a monkey—believed to keep evil spir- the adjoining room are other spectators. In
tion of the original set of four screens may its away from the horses—toddles toward the back of the room, his back turned to-
have been continuous, showing the scenes a young attendant who is carrying a tea- ward the garden, is a tea master preparing
from the beginning of the battle to the bowl on a stand. Grooms, one of them tea. A young attendant bringing a bowl of
stealing a nap, are in a corridor that sepa-
aftermath, but because Matehime proba- tea to the spectators is distracted by the
bly picked the first and third screens to rates the front from the rear of the stable. excitement in the garden.
form a new pair, there are gaps in the nar- The tradition of painting horses in a In the left screen a stable is shown
rative. The place names contained in stable was first seen in handscroll form as with six horses in compartments, each cor-
pasted-down cartouches mentioned above early as the Kamakura period, in a depic- responding to one panel. Unlike the Tokyo
tion of veterinary surgeons and medicinal
may in fact correspond to places in the herbs before a stable. A late fifteenth- National Museum screens of the same
missing screens. century narrative scroll, Seikdji engi emaki, subject (cat. 105), this view does not in-
Apart from the political significance clude any animating genre scenes. This
work represents a second type of stable

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