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Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses three distinctive features of early 17th-century Heike paintings: (1) sharing of designs between the various schools of painting; (2) mutual influence between screens, printed book illustrations and other media; and (3) growing demand for these paintings among feudal lords.

Paper long abstract:

By analyzing surviving examples of Heike paintings and screens of Genpei war battles created mainly from the early 17th century, this paper will clarify the circumstances in which they were produced. Heike paintings date back to the medieval period, but few early examples survive. Chinese poetry by Zen monks indicates that scenes like "The Death of Atsumori" were selected for illustration. From the early 17th century, Heike paintings and sliding screens of Genpei battles began to be produced more actively. The paintings draw on on the iconography established during previous periods but developed it further through the addition of new scenes. The important components for the production of a painting are: (1) the artist (painter), (2) the medium (pictorial format), and (3) the person commissioning the artwork and its viewers. Regarding artists, textual evidence reveals that the Kano and Tosa schools collaborated in the production of Heike screens. Surviving examples also include works made by individual schools, the Tosa, Kano, and Kaihō. Yet even among works of different painting schools, we find many examples of similar compositions and modes of depiction, suggesting that painters shared common styles. Concerning medium, we can observe a mutual influence among the different formats of fan paintings, illustrations for printed books, and picture scrolls. As for commissions and reception, the fact that a large number of extant Heike paintings were handed down in daimyō households suggests that they had symbolic significance for early modern warrior houses: Heike paintings were regarded as something that buke were expected to possess. Growing demand among buke families is behind the rise in production of Heike paintings. This paper reconsiders the characteristics of narrative paintings of the period by analyzing specific examples of seventeenth-century Heike paintings and Genpei battle screens.