**Form**
* 1.4 ft by 22 ft 9 inches
* Emaki: common East Asian hand scroll painting
* Warriors on horseback
* Otoke-e: action-packed “men’s paintings”
* Birds eye view of action from right to left
**Function**
* Celebrates Japan’s transition from messy, selfish royal rule to rule of samurai
**Content**
* Extreme attention to detail: scholars use this work as a reference for the period-
* Every building is individually detailed, every face has a different expression and emotion, every weapon is identifiable due to rank, type, design
* Cohesive narrative arc of war, chaos and victory
* Depicts seizing of retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa
* Elegant ox on the right starts off the narrative, will eventually carry Go-Shirakawa
* Aristocrats portrayed finely, soldiers portrayed as animals
* Palace set on fire
**Context**
* The art depicts only one battle of the viscous Heiji Insurrection in 1159-1160. War ended in 1192 with the establishment of the Kamakura Shogunate
* Part of a series that depicts the entire war, only two other remain
* Once owned by a powerful samurai, fell into the possession of an influential American, now in Museum of Fine Arts, Boston since 1889
Kamakura Period - Japan
Handscroll (Ink and Color on Paper)
1250 - 1300 CE