Page 149 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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86 • The origins of the dog-chasing game, The game is played by releasing dogs
Dog-Chasing Game like other methods of training the into the center of two concentric rope
Seventeenth century mounted archer, lie in the warrior code circles laid on the ground, while the
riders wait outside the outer circle.
Pair of six-panel screens; color and established during the Kamakura The participants then try to shoot
gold on paper period. Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147 - the animals with large round-headed
3
5
Each 129 x 349.5 (so /4 x i37 /s) 1199), who set up the first shogunate arrows that did not cause injury.
The Hosomi Art Foundation, Osaka on which the Tokugawa rule was Extant paintings of the game dating
Important Art Object based, had achieved his military suc-
cesses largely through doing away from the Muromachi period serve as
with infantry and relying on smaller instruction manuals, but works like
groups of well-armed cavalry. The this pair of screens celebrate the
game, which had enjoyed popularity festival nature of the event. Sight-
during the mid-Muromachi period, seers and official viewing stands are
was revived around the middle of the depicted. One screen indicates the
seventeenth century by the Shimazu preparation for the event, and the
clan of Satsuma province, no doubt as other shows the game underway as
a result of the government's require- the riders chase through the grounds
ment that each province be in a state of the daimyo's mansion. VH
of constant military readiness.