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Horses in Play

( 2 Panel Screen )

	Object Type	17th Century Japanese Screen Two Panel
	Artist	Unknown
	Period	Edo
	Materials	Gold Leaf and Color on Paper Screen
	Creation Date	ca. 1620
	Dimensions	156.2 cm. x 165.4 cm. (61 1/2 in. x 65 1/8 in.)

Commentary

The present state of colors on the screen are mostly due to its age. It is fascinating to wonder what it would have looked like when originally painted. Horses were always a favorite theme for samurai. There are influences from many different schools of painting seen in the work, so this was probably produced in a workshop by a town painter. - JDP The eight horses at play at a beach is the main theme and it was probably a pair. Various types of horses, black, brown, gray, light brown, variegated with black and white, and brown and white are depicted. The use of cut-gold leaves for the ground, accented with rocks and grasses, is the Yamato-e technique for depicting the beach. The artist for this painting is not from a traditional lineage such as the Kano or Tosa schools, but a merchant-artist. Another strange technique employed here is for dead trees, in which branches have long nail-like features, resembling the Chinese technique of the crab-legs (kaisogaki). The horses are taken from a traditional horse pattern from "Umaya-zu" and "Bokuba-zu," but they lack an aristocratic nobleness in their features. The similar horses appear in the Ogurihankan, a long handscroll by attributed to Iwasa Matebei, (the Imperial Household Collection). The Ogurihankan was painted around the end of the Kan'ei to the Kanbun eras. The Price Collection also can be from the same period. This work was introduced by me in Kokka, # 824, (April, 1961). When I saw this unusual piece in the Price Collection later, I recalled a fond memory. (Tsuji)