This hand-painted scroll depicts part of the imperial procession of Emperor Go-Mizunoo (1596–1680) to Nijō Castle in Kyoto in the autumn of 1626. Visible here are retainers at the head of the procession of Empress Tōfukumon’in and the emperor’s mother, Chūkamon’in. Nijō Castle was the residence of Shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604–1651), who used the imperial visit as a way to legitimise Tokugawa supremacy in the country. The shōgun and his father, Tokugawa Hidetada, treated the imperial family with suitable deference, presenting extravagant gifts and undertaking elaborate ceremonial over a five-day period. After the visit, court artists produced illustrated handscrolls (emakimono) documenting the event to reinforce messages of accord between the shōgun and the emperor. The lavish parade had included an entourage of thousands and so calligraphic captions were included to identify the most important figures. This scroll was produced in 1855 by an artist named Bunkei, probably copying a 1667 work by an artist of the Kanō school of painting.

Handscrolls were used to describe stories or historical events. Read from right to left, a reader would sit and unroll the scroll with one hand, while rolling it back up with the other as they worked through the text. This provided a flowing narrative for the story they were reading. The present scroll is the second volume of what was normally produced as a three-volume set. Interestingly, at the beginning of this scroll is a description of the itinerary of the visit, a feature normally found in the first volume. It is probable that this itinerary was pasted from another scroll, perhaps to encourage its sale outside Japan.

Text adapted from Japan: Courts and Culture (2020)