Page 186 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

aside from illustrations in texts from the are divided equally into three teams of sev- 108 Cherry blossom viewing and falconry
Muromachi periods, date from the end of enteen; one group dismounted at the top, attributed to Unkoku Togan
the Muromachi period. The event usually one at the bottom, and one on horseback (1547-1618)
was painted in a lively and straightforward around the rope circle. Great attention is pair of six-fold screens; ink and color
manner, as one component of a larger pic- given to the robes of the attending figures; on paper
ture. Eventually, the theme was treated on those of the mounted participants are de- each 157.0 x 345.5 (6i4/ 5 x 136)
a grander scale, expanded to fill the broad picted with sleeves billowing from ex- Momoyama period, late loth century
expanse afforded by a pair of six-fold tended arms to achieve maximum Sekai Kyüseikyó (MOA Art Museum),
screens as well as fusuma (sliding door) decorative effect against the gold back-
panels. More than a dozen Momoyama- ground. Shizuoka Prefecture
and Edo-period inuoumono screens, in The composition is contrived to Important Cultural Property
pairs and singly, are known today. achieve a contrast of action and inaction. Seasonal images from spring and winter
The screens shown here are generally The two aspects of the event, nawa no inu decorate this pair of screens. The spring
regarded as the oldest extant inuoumono and soto no inu, are clearly divided, one to scene of cherry blossom viewing is painted
screens, and are considered by many to be each six-panel screen. The artist has em- in a polychromatic style, while the winter
the finest. It has been argued on stylistic phasized a highly charged stillness in the scene of falconry is depicted in subdued
grounds that this set was painted by Kano nawa no inu scene. The dog is yet to be re- tones. In the spring screen, women and
Sanraku, an artist active during the Mo- leased and the participants wait expec- children enter into a festive dance as their
moyama and early Edo periods, when the tantly atop their horses who paw the palanquin and luggage bearers relax. The
practice of inuoumono had waned. A pas- ground with energetic anticipation. In colorfully dressed women and children are
sage in the late seventeenth-century art the soto no inu scene, the potential for ac- gathered in what appears to be a temple
historical text, the Honchd gashi, relates tivity is given full play, as the mounted compound on a hill, in an area separated
that Sanraku first painted inuoumono af- archers and attendants converge on the from the temple buildings by green cur-
ter hearing how it had been practiced fleeing dog in a galloping wedge of tains hung between cedar trees. Under the
from an old man named Sasaki Genyu. movement. AMW shade of a giant pine tree, the luggage
This confirms that Sanraku's inuoumono bearers squat by the palanquins and talk
paintings were produced after the actual among themselves; one prepares tobacco
practice of inuoumono had waned in leaves for his long pipe. The scene is illu-
popularity. minated by sunlight filtering through the
In this painting many of the conven- golden spring mist. In the winter screen,
tions of inuoumono are portrayed. The samurai and their attendants are engaged
nawd no inu area is carefully depicted with in hunting. The hunters intently pursue
a large circle of rope bordered with a ring pheasants that are being chased and at-
of sand in which the mounted archers tacked by hawks and dogs in a desolate
wait, and an inner circle of sand. On the winter field. A steep, overhanging cliff and
left-hand screen, in the nikkijo is the man rustic, thatched-roofed houses behind a
responsible for recording the events brushwood fence fill the last two panels at
poised with ink and brush at hand. On the the left.
right-hand screen, fifty-one participants Although the artist is not identified
by a signature or seal, these screens have

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