Chōjū gigaChōjū giga
Overview

I.
The Chōjū giga, or “Satirical scrolls of frolicking animals”,
consists of four handscrolls. The title is recent; when designated a National Treasure in 1905, the four scrolls werereferred to as the Shihon suiboku giga (Monochrome sketches on paper). These scrolls are not all the work of the same
hand. Moreover, despite the title now used for the set of four,
Scroll 2 consists of straightforward drawings of animals,
including birds, oxen, dogs, hawks, pheasants, eagles,
giraffes, goats, leopards, tigers, dragons, and elephants
instead of satiric sketches. Scrolls 1, 3, and 4 can, however,truly be described as satiric sketches. The work in Scroll 1 isparticularly outstanding.
A note at the end of Scroll 3 suggests that these scrolls datefrom 1253 or earlier. In the Nihon emakimono zenshū(Collected handscrolls of Japan, Volume 3: Chōjū giga; 1959),
Suzuki Keizō argues that among the human figures in thefirst half, apart from children and Buddhist priests, the malelay figures are, for the most part, wearing soft caps (naeeboshi). Ten male figures are shown in suikan kobakama, andone in kariginu. Seven male figures who appear to be lowranking warriors are wearing hitatare. Both men and women
are wearing kosode as undergarments, and the sleeves are
narrow. All in all, the clothing styles are similar to those in
the Yamai zōshi (Diseases and Deformities) and characteristic of the late Fujiwara period. One man alone, watching an
ear-tugging match, is wearing an ori-eboshi, although not as
stiff as the style commonplace in the Kamakura period. Suchheadgear is not to be found in the Shigisan engi or the Ban
Dainagon ekotoba. However, the mounted warriors in thetwelfth century Kokawadera engi (Legends of Kokawadera
Temple) are wearing ori-eboshi; that suggests that the Chōjūgiga might date from the same period. In addition, ori-eboshi
are shown worn by some of the zuibyō or warrior attendants
in the Nenjū gyōji emaki (Scroll of Annual Observances), in
the Chakuda no matsurigoto section. If the depictions areaccurate, the Nenjū gyōji emaki is the most recent of thesepicture scrolls showing ori-eboshi and dates slightly later thanthe Ban Dainagon ekotoba. Those observations enable us toestimate when these scrolls were created.
The Chōjū giga include no text. Thus, the narrative is notclear, and the story line may be interpreted in many ways.
They were rendered without color, entirely in the
monochrome technique known as hakubyō, which relies primarily on the brush line to define form and movement.
Scroll 1 shows rabbits, monkeys, deer, foxes, frogs, wild
pigs, cats, horned owls, and other animals engaged in many
activities, including crossing a river, participating in archery,
serving food and drink, leading animals, sumō wrestling,music and dance performances, and engaging in Buddhist
services. Scroll 2 consists of sketches of birds and animals innatural settings. The first half of Scroll 3 presents scenes ofanimals playing games: go, sugoroku, musashi, ear tugging,neck tugging, staring contests, loincloth tug-of-war, cock-fighting, and dog fighting. In the second half, monkeys, rabbits, deer, frogs, foxes, wild pigs, and cats imitate humanbeings, including equestrians, biwa-playing minstrels, blind
persons, cart haulers, dancers, and people doing handstands.
Scroll 4 is drawn in an extremely crude style and depicts
humans engaged in a variety of activities, including acrobatics, Buddhist services, archery, music and dance performances, a game resembling polo, log dragging, riding in an
oxcart, and dancing. The first half of Scroll 3 and Scroll 4 areparticularly valuable sources for learning about games andrecreation of the period.
II.
The Chōjū giga have long been attributed to the priest
Kakuyū (Toba Sōjō, 1053-1140). While some aspects of
Kakuyū’s biography do point to his authorship, it remains
open to question. According to the Sonpi bunmyaku (Augustand humble genealogical lines, a collection of genealogicaltables complied in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries),
Kakuyū was the son of Uji Dainagon Minamoto no Takakuni.
As noted in the introduction to the Ban Dainagon ekotoba,
Takakuni was the author of the Uji Dainagon monogatari(Tales of the Uji Dainagon), and is also said to have compiled
the Konjaku monogatarishū (Tales of times now past). He
died in 1077, at the age of 74. Takakuni is thought to havebeen the most outstanding writer of narrative literature of histime. His son Kakuyū was born in 1053 and also seems tohave had remarkable gifts. He became the head of theShitennōji Temple in 1081, was appointed chief supervisor of
the Onjōji Temple in 1135, and attained the highest clericalrank, daisōjō, as chief abbot of the Tendai sect in 1138. He
also was the head of the Shōkongōin, a temple founded byEmperor Toba, and thus was popularly known as Toba’s
Abbot, Toba Sōjō.
Several documents concerning Kakuyū have survived,
including anecdotes about him in the Kokon chomonjū(Collection of tales past and present). Written by Tachibanano Narisue, the collection dates from 1254, 114 years after
Kakuyū’s death in 1140, and thus its contents are not eyewitness accounts. Nonetheless, the oral narrative tradition oftentransmitted stories quite accurately, and we can take seriously the Kokon chomonjū assertion that Kakuyū was an accomplished artist. In addition, his reputation for eccentricity is
confirmed by anecdotes in the Tales from Uji. The Kojidan,
an early Kamakura period collection of stories, reinforcesthat reputation by repeating the story that when Kakuyū wasdying and his disciples pressed him to divide up his assets
among them, he stated in writing that “The allocation will bedecided by a test of strength.” We can thus imagine Kakuyū
as having the personality to have painted the satirical Chōjū
giga.
Even if we do assume Kakuyū was the author, the purposeof these scrolls remains unclear. In addition, the postscript at
the end of Scroll 3 gives a date of 1253; Kakuyū died in 1140.
We might conclude that the postscript was added later, but

Chōjū giga

53are then left with the problem that an inspection of the paintings makes it obvious that Scrolls 3 and 4 are by a different
hand from Scrolls 1 and 2. Moreover, the observations by
Suzuki cited above suggest that Scrolls 3 and 4 depict manners and customs from a period after Kakuyū’s own. It is likely that Scrolls 3 and 4 date from after Kakuyū’s death andpossibly as late as the Kenchō era (1249-1256).
Scroll 1 shows animals acting like human beings, while
Scroll 3 shows both humans and animals and Scroll 4 shows
only humans. Whether animals or humans, however, theirclothing and other accouterments are thought to be an accurate depiction of the customs of the time. In particular,
Scrolls 3 and 4, with their treatment of games and competitions, are a major source of information on how ordinary
Japanese used their leisure time. They are especially valuable
because the pastimes shown seem to be everyday events.
Further, the vivid way these scenes were painted speaks ofthe people’s passionate involvement in such enjoyments.
They are alive with the energy of the common people.
The paintings include some that are sharply satirical,
though not critical of society. Scroll 3, moreover, presents anaffirmative view of the cheerful, free and easy lives of thecommon people. The particularly distinctive feature of thesescrolls, however, is their lack of depictions of structures andinterior spaces. Scroll 3 in particular focuses on outdoor
games and other recreational activities, and is freed from thelimitations that depicting indoor activities imposes. We see
people enjoying themselves out in the bright sun, with noinhibitions whatsoever.
We know, however, that society and government were very
unstable in the late Heian to early Kamakura periods. Withpower shifting from the hands of the aristocrats to the warrior class, political control passed from the Fujiwara to the
Taira and then to the Minamoto clans. These upheavals wereaccompanied by considerable political unrest, as in the Jōkyū
Disturbance (1221), in which the aristocrats failed in theirattempt to overthrow the warrior-dominated Kamakura
shogunate. The pessimistic world-weariness of the intelligentsia that is communicated in the Hōjōki (Account of myhut) by Kamo no Chōmei (1155-1216) permeated the age. If
the common people were nonetheless able to lead suchcheerful, uninhibited lives even in those turbulent times, thevery act of depicting their lives was itself a sharply satiricalcriticism of the upper classes.
If the lively people shown in these scrolls are typical of thelower reaches of society in the late Heian and early
Kamakura periods, then the streets of Kyōto must have beenrocking with their lively musical and dance performances. In
that sense, we should view these scrolls not merely as genre
paintings or as biting humor but also, perhaps more importantly, as depicting the vitality of the common people. They
also exhibit the humor that is a key component of populararts and culture in Japan.
In the following section, we examine in detail a selection of
32 scenes from Chōjū giga Scrolls 1, 3, and 4 that are related
to lifestyles today. As indicated above, many concern the use
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of leisure time in the course of everyday life.

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3

2

1

5

1 rush hat
2 long-handled umbrella
3 covering for umbrella
4 handle
5 straw sandals (gege)

439 Large Umbrella, Sedge Hat, and Straw Sandals
The large umbrella held by the rabbit is the type called a“long-handled umbrella.” In Volume 15 of the Engishiki, it
states: “Those permitted to use large umbrellas shall include
princesses and ladies of higher ranks, namely those with thestatus of at least the third rank and the wives of ministers”.
So only highly placed people could use these umbrellas.
Large umbrellas equipped with cloth transport bags(“bagged umbrella”) were considered appropriate for use
when visiting the Imperial court. The cloth covering of these“court umbrellas” colored either white or red typically included an extra length folded over at the top (Morisada mankō ).
Such large umbrellas were quite magnificent and strong,
lined with scarlet paper, covered with silk, and oilcloth. The
umbrella described was wrapped in a bleached linen bag(Morisada mankō ). It was used to offer protection from rain,with the extra-long handle (8 shaku) designed “to support theumbrella when held above the heads of high-ranking individuals mounted on horseback” (Morisada mankō ).
The hat trailing behind the monkey in the picture with theunderside visible may be one fashioned from woven rushes.
Hats of this type have a long history, appearing for example
in a story about the Kasagidera Temple in Volume 11, chapter 30 of the Konjaku monogatarishū, which takes place during the time of the Emperor Tenji (Seventh century). “Theprince removed his sedge hat, put it down and gave it back.”
The name of Kasagidera Temple (the Temple of removing
and putting down the sedge hat) derived from this. Anotherpassage, in the Engishiki, mentions that the province of Izumi
paid a tax consisting of forty-six woven rush hats, further evidence that such hats have been produced since antiquity. It isa kind of old style of twill woven rush hat.
Also in this picture we see a fox holding what is undoubtedly a pair of straw sandals (gege).

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1

1
2

2

3
6

7

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9
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11

1 tate-eboshi
2 fan
3 walking stick (two-pronged)
4 round fan
5 uchigi
6 travelling attire
7 ichimegasa
8 uchigi
9 straw sandals (zōri)
10 sashinuki
11 shoe56

40 Woman’s Travel Attire, Round Fan
The woman’s travel attire shown here includes ichimegasa
and wide-sleeved uchigi layered over a kosode, with a cordaround the waist used to shorten the robe.
The frog, cat, and fox all hold folding fans, while the rabbit
has a round one. There was also a square type of paper fan,called an ajiro uchiwa, which was woven of thin slats of bamboo.

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4
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41 Kazuki, Straw Mat
A weeping monkey wearing an uchigi holds a Buddhist
rosary. A fox wearing an uchigi in kazuki style sits holding afan. A monkey is bending forward away from the viewer holding what is most likely a mat made of straw or sedge. Mats
were important as floor coverings. The Engishiki mentions
that finely textured straw mats were offered as tax payment
by the provinces of Kōzuke (120 mats) and Musashi (60mats). These mats were probably very similar to certain
types of mats still available today. There were also twilled
woven mats, which were nearly the same as tatami facing
today. The regulations of kanimoriryō, or the Court Cleaning
Department, in the Engishiki describes a mat woven using
rush and linen.

Chōjū giga

1 uchigi
2 Buddhist rosary
3 kinukazuki
4 fan
5 straw matting
6 fan (folded and thrust in waistband)7 eboshi
8 kesa9 sashinuki
10 straw sandals (zōri)

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4
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2

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3

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1 tate-eboshi
2 strap for the headwear
3 straw matting
4 kanmuri
5 tiger skin mat
6 sashinuki

42 Floor Covering
A rabbit wearing a kanmuri holds a tiger-skin mat, while afrog wearing a tate-eboshi has a rolled-up straw mat. The purpose and significance of the tiger skin is not clear, but anentry in the Nihon shoki describes a tiger and leopard skinamong a collection of about 100 gifts sent by the Kingdom ofSilla in Korea to the Japanese Court via Tsukushi in the firstyear of Shuchō (686). Other tiger skin mats were probably
gifted to Japan, but written descriptions of these are few. The
Gaki zōshi (Kōmoto family version) depicts a pair of oni, one
wearing a tiger skin on his back, the other wearing a tigerskin loincloth. It can be supposed that such tiger skins wereused more to identify foreign gods, and generally were not
put to practical everyday use. That said, there are also examples of tiger skins being incorporated into arms and armor.
The Mononogu shōzokushō shows a saddle-cover made oftiger skin and mentions that such items were used by aristocrats when they rode in the saddle in informal situations. The
Imagawa daisōshi, Furoki and Fukōindono gogenpukuki also
all contain descriptions of leopard and tiger skins being used
for saddle covers. The Imagawadaisōshi mentions that “bearskin should not be used for those of high rank,” suggesting
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that the specific type of skin to be used depended upon thesocial class of the intended user. The Kazarishō mentions
that saddle covers to be used by individuals lower than thefifth rank must be made of tiger skin, while those to be usedby members of the fourth-rank and above should be made ofleopard skin. Further, the Itasaka bokusaiki describes tiger
skin being used for nagezaya (long sword coverings made offabric with folded tops) during the time of Toyotomi
Hideyoshi. All of these descriptions, however, date from periods much later than the Chōjū giga. In any case, we can imagine that while the skins of exotic animals like tigers werehighly regarded, their relative rarity generally limited themto special purposes and occasions.

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2
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1 bamboo basket (with short legs)
2 white melon
3 striped melon
4 bundle
5 peach?
6 bowl7 akebi?
8 table43 Fruits
In the Wamyō ruijūshō, tree fruits are referred to as konomi
or, more commonly, kudamono, while fruits growing on the
ground, like melons, are called kusa-kudamono (lit. “grass
fruits”). It is not clear exactly which fruits were contained ineach category, but the Zōbutsusho-sakumotsuchō in the sixthyear of Tenpyō (734) lists melons and eggplants, and the
Hōshaissaikyōsho-ge in the first and second year of Hōki (770
and 771), mentions peaches, loquats, Japanese apricots, melons, yellow melons, and eggplants. The Engishiki mentions
chestnuts, peaches, citrons (yuzu), persimmons, loquats,plums, strawberries, Japanese pears (nashi), melons, gourds,
winter melons, and eggplants. The Man’yōshū adds jujubes(dates) to this list. The section of Wamyō ruijūshō listing
sweet fruits and melons includes pomegranates, pears,
oranges, hazelnuts, chestnuts, chinquapins, kaya nuts, apricots, peaches, jujubes (dates), and tachibana (an inedible
green citrus fruit native to Japan). The section for gourds
includes green melons, white melons, yellow melons, ripened
melons, winter melons, cucumbers, eggplants, Japanese
Staunton vines, strawberries and akebi. It seems unlikely thatthese various lists were comprehensive of all of the fruits
available in Japan at the time, but those listed were probably
the ones most generally well known. Comparing the fruits
depicted in the Chōjū giga with these old references, we cansurmise that the rabbit must be carrying an assortment of
melons, that the fruit in the bowl are probably peaches, andthat the rest of the fruit on the table outside of the bowl areakebi (although the last is somewhat questionable in terms of
seasonality). Fruits available around the time the Chōjū giga
drawings were created were mostly wild, except for melons
and gourds, which were already being cultivated. As for theother miscellaneous objects in the picture, we see a bamboo
basket with short legs, a wooden bowl, and a low table, plus alarge bundle-shaped parcel in the centre, the contents ofwhich is unknown.

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7
2
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1 sake pot
2 covering the mouth of sake pot
3 handle
4 stand5 ladle6 carrying pole
7 carrying by two

44 Sake Pot
An article in the Azuma kagami, dated the thirtieth day of
ninth month in the fourth year of Kenchō (1252), and thus
written over eighty years before this picture was drawn,
describes how the Kamakura government, as part of anaction to curb alcohol consumption, undertook an official
reckoning of the number of sake pots circulating in the civilian market and came up with the number 37,274. From this it
was evident that quite a large amount of sake was being consumed. In ancient times, most of the available sake was a“chewed type,” so named because it was made by partiallychewing rice and other ingredients to mix these with saliva,
then spitting out the result and allowing it to ferment. Thismethod is still used today on the eastern coast of the Ōsumi
Peninsula in Kyūshū and on the island of Takarajima to thesouth for making sake for religious purposes. Later, following
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the development of transportation and increased cultural
exchange with China, a brewer from the Asian continent
named “Susukori” introduced to Japan a method of producing sake using malted rice yeast, leading to enormous
advances not only in technology but also to a great increasein quantity. The Engishiki mentions that sake came to be fermented using techniques like those used today, including
refreshing the ingredients in the brewing vat every ten days,
filtering the unrefined sake through a cloth bag to remove thelees, and reducing acidity if necessary by adding ash sap.
The refined sake was made in this way, and so was unrefinedsake. The sake pot depicted here is probably the type to contain unrefined sake.

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1 paper covering the mouth of pot
2 pot
3 box
4 seam of box
5 uchigi
6 carrying on one’s head
7 sake holder
8 mouth of sake holder
9 handle of sake holder

45 Sake Pot, Sake Holder
Historically much sake was privately made, and apparently
in most cases it was unrefined sake. Privately made sake wasalso easily oxidized, and people removed the sediment fromthe bottom of the sake pot or heated sake to prevent its oxidation. In the case of unrefined sake, evidently people ladled itout of the pot into bowls and drank from them, while in thecase of refined sake, they transferred sake from the pot intosake containers and then poured it into a sake cup to drink.
The rabbit is carrying a sake holder. Sake holders arereferred to as sashinabe or sasunabe in the Wamyō ruijūshō; it
explains sashinabe as a metal vessel, and therefore such holders must have been made of metal. Sashinabe are also
described as warming vessels, so presumably their originaluse was to warm sake. The Wamyō ruijūshō, however, mentions the existence of a round handle, and probably the sakeholder of its time did not have a long handle like the one in
the picture. Rather it must have looked like a spouted bowl
with a round handle, which still exists today. With the passage of time, sake holders must have lost their round handles
and acquired long ones instead, and their purpose shiftedfrom warming sake to pouring it into sake cups. What the fox
carries on its head is a square box called oribitsu, and it
appears to contain sake pots, the mouths of which are covered with pieces of paper or cloth.

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1
5
6

3

2

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1 long chest
2 lid of long chest
3 cord tied around long chest
4 legs of long chest
5 carrying pole
6 carrying by two

46 Long Chest
The Wamyō ruijūshō explains that there are various hitsu(chest/box) such as nagabitsu (long chest), karabitsu(legged chest), akahitsu (box made of unvarnished wood),oribitsu (box made by bending thin planks), kobitsu (smallbox), and so on. Most of them were made of wood. The chest
appearing in the picture is a kind of nagabitsu and it has legs.
It is explained as a chest similar to zushi but whose lid opens
upward. Thus its original purpose must have been the sameas that of the so-called zushi chest, which was to store tableware and food. According to the Teijō zakki, “There are two
types of karabitsu: one is nagakarabitsu and the other isnikarabitsu. Nagakarabitsu is as long as nagamochi, and it
requires two persons to carry one chest. Nikarabitsu is half
the length of a nagakarabitsu, and one person carries two ofthem, hanging one from each end of a pole. Both types ofkarabitsu have six legs.” It also explains that karabitsu can beused to store anything, including kosode and armor, but, as62

mentioned above, historically it appears to have been mainly
used for storing food.
The chest in the illustration is evidently a nagakarabitsu,
and its contents seem to be a sake pot and a bowl of fruit.
Karabitsu were initially made for carrying loads. According to
the Engishiki, large ones could be five shaku long, two shaku
and three sun wide, and two shaku deep, while small ones
could be four shaku and five sun long, two shaku and three
sun wide, and one shaku and eight sun deep; yet there wasalso another type of hitsu that was lacquered, and this waseven smaller. In general there did not seem to exist any standard. Chests for kimono were much smaller.

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3
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2

2
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1 tate-eboshi
2 Buddhist rosary
3 ichimegasa

47 Buddhist Rosary, Headwear
Juzu, rosaries, were used by Buddhists. In general they
consisted of a hundred and eight beads strung as a loop. In
the case of juzu held in one’s hands, usually two bigger beads
separated the regular beads into two sets of fifty-four. It isbelieved originally people simply held the juzu in their hands
and that Kakuyū of the Miidera Temple began the practice of
rubbing beads of the rosary together with both hands.
Priests of the Shingon sect then followed his style (cf. Ruijū
meibutsukō). The beads are, according to the Seji hyakudan,“all shaped flat nowadays, but many imported beads areround,” and in China, round beads were popular. Apart fromthese, there were polyhedral beads and beads made of crystal, lotus fruit, or from orange seeds.

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1

2

1 sugoroku board
2 sack of dice and stones for sugoroku

48 Sugoroku Board
Japanese backgammon, known commonly as sugoroku, is agame in which the players throw dice and move their stone
pieces according to the throw. It is considered to have comefrom Central Asia, and since the game was forbidden during
the reign of Empress Jitō (686-97), it must have arrived inJapan before that; it thus appears to have come earlier thango. Apparently it enjoyed high popularity from early times,
not only because it was an enjoyable contest, but because
people bet on the game. A story in the Kojidan tells of a priest
who left Kyōto to live in the eastern provinces to perform austerities. While in the province of Musashi (Tokyo Metropolis
and Saitama Prefecture today) and occasionally chanting the
Hokekyō sutra, he fell to playing sugoroku with the locals, andafter losing much, he even bet his own life. An episode of64

gambling on backgammon also appears in Volume 12 of theKokon chomonjū (an anthology of tales from the mid-thirteenth century). Gambling made sugoroku popular and also
made it harmful, so it was often forbidden. Sugoroku wasplayed not only among the upper classes but also by ordinary
people. The monkey in the front carries a sugoroku board; thesack that the one in the back carries may contain stone
pieces.

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1

2

3

1 binzasara
2 kinukazuki
3 fan

49 Binzasara
Two frogs are holding binzasara. In the Dengaku hōshi
yurai no koto, binzasara is described as being in total three
shaku and five sun long, the length of the part to hold at bothends is five sun and seven bu; the length of the “leaves,”
which are multicolored, is two sun and five bu. A reference tosasara appears in the chapter of “Onmogi” of the Eiga monogatari, which was written in the early eleventh century: “The
Kamo Festival passed and the fifth month arrived. The mother of Emperor Goichijō, Fujiwara no Shōshi, was staying at
the Tsuchimikado palace, and Fujiwara no Michinaga wondered how he should entertain her . . . He then called dengaku performers. They tied unusual drums on their hip,played flutes, sounded what they called sasara, danced various dances, and the lowly men sang songs.” From this text
we can confirm that sasara was used by dengaku performers.

Thus this picture must illustrate a scene in which frogs are
imitating dengaku dances. Sasara was used to beat therhythm. The Wajiga gives the pronunciation of bimuzasara to
the combination of Chinese characters representing beat andboard. And the Wamyō ruijūshō explains the word consistingof these two characters as an instrument. This instrument
was mainly used for dengaku dances. Dengaku hōshi (dengaku
performers) in general wore a sedge hat called ōgi gasa
(ayaigasa). The lotus leaf one of the frogs is wearing must be
imitating this hat. The sasara in the illustration is made bystringing together many small wood pieces, and there wasanother type made by splitting one side of a bamboo whileleaving the other side intact.

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1 naked child
2 shaved head
3 naked4 old woman sitting with one knee up
5 wearing one’s hair down
6 kosode
7 sitting with one knee up
8 ichimegasa
9 cord for fastening ichimegasa
10 shaved head
11 untidy hair
12 sitting on one’s heels with knees together

5

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6
6
12

50 Crawling, Sitting
The habit of seating oneself in a chair or the like wasextremely rare among Japanese people. As a rare example indaily life, women helping with childbirth sat on buckets asmakeshift stools. In ordinary life, people generally sat directly on the ground or floor. There were a variety of sitting
styles. Here we can see the style of sitting with one knee up
and sitting on one’s heels, aligning the knees. There are notmany examples of sitting on one’s heels in picture scrolls, but
it is obvious from this one that this custom dates back toearly ages. The most common sitting style for females was to66

sit with one knee up and to hold one’s hands around the elevated knee. This style appears to be a comfortable one to oureyes. In picture scrolls, examples of naked children playing
or held in an adult’s arms are truly abundant. The reason is
not clear. The child in this illustration has its head shaven as
well. It is similar to the shaved head seen in the Senmen
koshakyō.

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1 ox
2 nose ring
3 reins
4 yoke5 martingale
6 shaft
7 pushing a cart

51 CartExamples of ox-driven carts are depicted in the Senmen
koshakyō, as an earlier instance, and also in Ippen hijirie andIshiyamadera engi. Originally, oxcarts were mainly used tocarry passengers, but it seems that ox-driven carts for carrying loads appeared from a little before Senmen koshakyō waspainted. The structure was basically the same as an oxcart forcarrying passengers, but there was a fence in place of theroofed seats. These carts were all drawn by oxen, and no
example of one drawn by a horse has been painted. The reason is not clear, but it may be related to the fact that Japanesehorses of the day were small and not that strong. In addition,
because of the hilly topography and the poor road system,
the area where vehicles could be used seems to have beenvery small, basically limited to the area around the capital. In
the Kantō region, it was only from the Edo period that carts
were regularly used. Oxcarts thus hardly contributed to the

8 support sprint
9 spoke
10 hub
11 axle12 wheel
13 side plankhistorical development of land transportation. From about thetime of this illustration, it seems to have become common totie the reins to a nose ring. Such a custom, in which people
controlled oxen through a rein attached to a nose ring, canbe seen in the Senmen koshakyō as well. Presumably it was acommon practice by the time. Small cymbals and handdrums were rung to keep the rhythm, and fans (in this illustration a monkey holds a board) were used to coordinate themovements of the group.

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4 barefoot
5 shaved head
6 priestly robes
7 hair knot
8 nae-eboshi
9 yonobakama
10 samurai-eboshi
11 tate-eboshi

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52 People Pulling a Rope
These pictures illustrate people dragging a huge log with arope. The bottom image is the first in the sequence, and theone above follows it. The man at the left in the bottom pictureholds the end of the rope. He is bald, unclothed, barefooted,
and wears only a loincloth. Such a style was common forheavy laborers. The fourth man from the front ties his hair ina knot but does not wear an eboshi. Among the men in the top
image, some wear nae-eboshi, another wears a sedge hat, others wear yonobakama. Presumably there were no set rules forthe working clothes of ordinary people.

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1 man giving directions on top of log
2 tate-eboshi
3 fan
4 kariginu
5 sashinuki
6 hole for rope
7 log
8 man using rails to move a log forward

53 Transporting a Log
How to transport heavy loads has always been a problem;
logs were transported the way depicted in this illustration.
There is a similar scene in the Ishiyamadera engi as well.
When people transported logs or a large block of wood, theyfirst made a hole at one end of the log, through which theypassed a rope. This hole was called hanaguri. Every large log
seems to have been transported with this hanaguri method,
for planks used for roofs and floors had this hole at one end.
Transported logs were split using wedges. Before the appearance of the ripsaw, all planks were made by splitting, leaving
the hanaguri hole at one end. The reason people did notremove the hole must have been for the convenience oftransporting the planks later, after the building was demolished.
To transport logs, people laid rails under the log and prodded the rails with poles to move the log forward, while simultaneously a large number of people dragged it. One man
rides on the log to command this work with a fan. In this way
people dragged logs on land all over the country.
Occasionally oxen were used, for example in the mountains.

9 unclothed
10 yonobakama
11 barefoot
12 prodding rails with pole
13 pole14 rails
15 shaved head16 tate-eboshi

In areas such as the Kuma Mountains in Kyūshū, Tsushima,or Noto in the Chūbu region, we can see four or five oxen
dragging a large log even today. Transportation of logs
required special devices, and where there was a river, people
often used it, damming up and then releasing the water. In
the Kamakura period, villagers of Saba village in Suō
Province (Yamaguchi prefecture today), who supplied timber
for the reconstruction of the Tōdaiji Temple, used hemp
ropes to drag the timber, and carried logs sixty-five shaku
long and with a diameter of five shaku and three sun using apulley and seventy laborers.

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1 priests around a go board
2 shaved head
3 thinking while resting chin on hand
4 kosode
5 go-stone container
6 boy watching the go game7 hair tied in back8 resting chin on hand

9 lying on stomach
10 priestly robes
11 Buddhist rosary
12 kesa
13 sitting with one knee up
14 sitting on one’s heels with knees together
15 go board

54 Go
Go is one of the games introduced to Japan from China.
The Kaifūsō states that the priest Benshō often played go
while studying in China during the Taihō period (701-704).
Another early reference occurs in the “Kibi nittō kan no koto”
chapter of the Gōdanshō. There the story goes: Minister Kibi
wanted to challenge a Chinese person to a game of go. The
Chinese player was highly skilled, but during their hotly contested game, Kibi stole one of his opponent’s black stones
and swallowed it. As a result, his Chinese opponent lost thegame. The Kibi no Otodo nittō ekotoba also depicts this scene.
Its textual portion states that the Chinese challenged him toplay a game of go because they assumed that a Japanese person would not know of it. That is mere legend, but does tellus that go reached Japan from China. It also suggests that, atthe outset, the game was mainly played among aristocrats.
According to the Shoku nihongi, aristocrats played go when
they had time to spare from government duties. Later, it
seems that the game of go gradually spread among otherswith leisure time and especially among priests. The Nihonryōiki includes a story of Buddhist priests in Yamashiro play70

14

ing go with novices and laymen. This picture, which depicts asimilar scene, might well be an illustration of a go game inprocess today. It was customary to wager cloth, paper, ormoney on go games; the stakes in such games were calledgotezeni, or money bet on the game of go. During the Edo
period, betting on go was prohibited for a time.

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1 tate-eboshi
2 hitatare
3 counting on fingers
4 hakama
5 sitting with one knee up
6 kariginu
7 lidded box
8 man playing sugoroku
9 shaved head
10 naked
11 moxibustion scar ?
12 sitting with knees up

55 Sugoroku
This picture depicts a game of sugoroku in process. The
game itself is explained in 48 above. The Ryō no gige regards
sugoroku as a form of gambling, since players would placebets on the outcome; they usually wagered the same sorts ofthings in playing sugoroku as in go. The Ruiju sandaikyaku
indicates that playing sugoroku was banned on the fourteenth
day of the tenth month in the sixth year of Tenpyōshōhō(754). According to that source, common people, failing torespect the law, played sugoroku among themselves, and that
led to social chaos. Children rebelled against their fathers,
their daily labor declined, and the way of filial piety was damaged. Thus, the law firmly prohibited playing the gamethroughout the country.
Sugoroku was probably more popular among the common
people than was go, for it is a much easier game. Play begins
by placing the black and white pieces on the board; then the

13 baring one shoulder
14 shaking the dice
15 dice container
16 short sword
17 kosode18 sashinuki
19 sitting cross-legged
20 sugoroku board
21 tiered box
22 cord for tying up boxes
23 pitcher

players shake the dice inside a cylinder, throw them, andadvance their pieces according to the numbers on the dice.
In this picture, the man with a tate-eboshi on his head is holding a cylinder that presumably contains the dice. Each die isa cube, each face of which carries one to six spots. The
Man’yōshū dating from the late eighth century includes apoem on the subject of the dice used in playing sugoroku(“Not one spot or two but five and six, three and four—thesugoroku dice”), alluding to the fact the throw of the dice
decided the outcome of the game.

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1 priest watching a game of musashi
2 shaved head
3 pointing a forefinger
4 priestly robes (with high collar)
5 child playing musashi
6 wearing one’s hair down
7 kosode

8 sitting with one knee up
9 supporting oneself on one’s hand
10 holding a musashi piece to one’s lips
11 baring one shoulder
12 wide-sleeved kimono
13 sitting on one’s heels

56 Musashi
In the Wamyō ruijūshō, the game is called yasasugari. The
Ansai zuihitsu states, “It is still called sukari in the countryside; it is also shortened to yasa. The name yasasukari is
properly yasusugari; yasu is short for yasuji and refers to thelines indicating the eight roads drawn on the game board;sugari means that the young horses, in the terminology ofthe game, surround the senior horse”. The Kagakushū gives
the reading musashi for the characters meaning “eightroads.” The Tamakatsuma refers to musashi as a game forchildren and quotes a Ming dynasty Chinese source, theWuzazu, which mentions a similar children’s game named“Horse Castle”. It also cites the Nihon shoki in which an
instance of reading the character for “castle” as sashi occurs.
It also refers to Korean to conclude that the game musashi
might originate in “horse castle,” with the name derivingfrom a transformation of uma (“horse”) plus sashi (“castle”).
In Edo, the game was called jūroku musashi, or “sixteen
musashi,” because, counting only the pawns, there were sixteen pieces. It was easy enough for children to play. The player who has surrounded the opponent’s piece wins and thus itbecame very popular among the common people. In this pic72

ture, a child is playing musashi with a man with a shaved
head. The game is mentioned infrequently in documents fromJapan’s medieval period, but its survival as a game still playedby children suggests that it was a more familiar and deeply
rooted part of popular life than the games of go or sugoroku.
Adults also sometimes played the game with children. We
know from the Kōshoku ichidai onna (the Life of an Amorous
Woman), a novel by Ihara Saikaku, that “When you playmusashi with a child, you yourself might become too enthusiastic.” Scenes showing an adult and a child playing musashi,
as in the picture shown here, are also known from the Edo
period. It is presumed that musashi’s simplicity led to its later
becoming a game only for children.

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8 kosode
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10 sitting cross-legged

1 skinny man in loincloth tug-of-war
2 nae-eboshi
3 unclothed
4 loincloth used in tug-of-war
5 loincloth

57 Staring Contest, Loincloth Tug-of-War
The upper picture depicts a staring contest, a game inwhich two people stare at each other until one blinks; sometimes it was played with one eye closed. The staring contest
was originally also a game for adults. In the lower picture, askinny man and a fat man with a shaved head, both
unclothed, are playing loincloth tug-of-war, with a loinclothserving as the rope. The skinny man is wearing a loinclothand has a nae-eboshi on his head. Evidently this simple game,
too, was originally played by grown-ups. Such games as theseand the games of neck tugging and ear tugging shown on the

11 staring at each other12 looking upward and laughing
13 priestly robes

next page were played simply to kill time on some occasions.
But since, in this picture, both participants have taken thetrouble to strip bare for the tug of war, it seems likely thatthey were serious about the competition. Similar games
include arm wresting, sune-oshi (leg wrestling), yubi-hajiki (agame of flicking small stones or pieces of shell, not unlike
marbles), and mass tug-of-war with many people on bothsides. These games may be more recreational offshoots ofthe martial art of sumō.

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1 man in ear tugging match
2 nae-eboshi
3 putting a cord around the ear
4 kosode
5 encircling knees with arms
6 tate-eboshi
7 kosode
8 short sword

9 flint sack
10 hakama
11 shaved head
12 sitting with one knee up
13 wide-sleeved kimono
14 cord used in neck tugging match
15 knot
16 man in neck tugging match

17 tense expression
18 stripping to waist
19 kosode20 clenching fist
21 putting feet against each other’s
22 skinny man in neck tugging match
23 zukin
24 supporting the body from behind with one’s hands

58 Ear Tugging, Neck Tugging
These pictures are evidence that these games have a long
history.
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59 Bird Cage, Hitai-eboshi
Cages for gamecocks, the birds used in cock fighting, werelarge, roughly woven baskets placed mouth-down on the
ground. In the past, chickens were usually allowed to range
freely, but a gamecock would be kept caged or tied by its leg
to a post so that it could not harm other animals. The cages
were apparently made of bamboo, as they are today. We
know from the Senmen koshakyō and the Kokawadera engi
that there were many types of bird cages, many of whichwere designed to be easy to carry. Since those early illustrations were all of openwork, not latticework, cages, the lattermust have developed later.
As explained earlier, the hitai-eboshi was not a merely ornamental head covering. It had straps firmly attached, as shownin this picture, to tie at the back of the head, and was thus thepredecessor of the hachimaki headband. The eboshi worn by
adults was both a head covering and a wrap for the hair,
which was tied up on top, and thus inevitably was long andhigh. On the other hand, children wore their hair down ortied in back; without a topknot, they had no need to wear an
eboshi. In this picture, the boy with his hair tied in back is notwearing a head covering, while the other boy, who has hishair down, does wear a hitai-eboshi to keep his hair neat.

Chōjū giga

1 child running
2 hair tied in back3 whip4 kosode
5 ashida
6 hitai-eboshi
7 untidy hair
8 kosode
9 barefoot10 man looking at cock11 nae-eboshi
12 hakama
13 squatting on tiptoe with knees together
14 bird cage
15 cock

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60, 61 Cock Fighting
Cock fighting, which has a long history in China, is thought
to have been introduced from there to Japan. The Nihon
shoki, relates that a local magnate, Kibi no Shimotsumichi no
Sakitsuya, enjoyed cockfighting during the reign of theEmperor Yūryaku. It appears that cockfighting was used for
divination and was widespread through all social classes inthe Heian period. The Zen taiheiki states: “In Kyōto, cockfighting is a popular pastime for all ages. On the fourth day of
the third month, ten cockfighting matches were held at theImperial Court, and children of seven or eight years of age
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watched. After they started to let cocks fight, the custom
spread widely. People would raise 30 or 50 cocks, put four
stakes in the ground to make something like a sumō ring, andenjoy the cockfighting.” Cocks were easy for the common
people to obtain, and thus the pastime frequently became
popular. Some shrines, such as the Tōkei Gongen (cockfighting shrine) in Kiitanabe (Wakayama prefecture), divined thefuture based on the outcome of a cockfight.

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1 child watching cockfighting
2 untidy hair
3 resting chin on hands
4 kosode
5 sleeveless kimono
6 supporting oneself on one’s hand
7 sitting with one knee up
8 barefoot9 cock10 cord tying cockChōjū giga

11 stake to tie cock12 man holding cock13 tate-eboshi
14 kosode15 hakama
16 cord around one’s waist
17 short sword
18 squatting on tiptoe with knees together
19 sitting on one’s heels with knees together

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1 man playing hand drum
2 rush hat
3 kariginu (rolled-up sleeves)
4 sashinuki
5 hand drum
6 acrobatic playing of a hand drum
7 man beating a drum
8 kariginu

9 drum (with comma-shaped design)
10 drumstick
11 man playing binzasara
12 binzasara
13 man playing flute
14 broad-brimmed rush hat
15 flute
16 ashida with one support

62 Dengaku
These pictures are good source material for late Heian dengaku, ritual music and dance performances to ensure goodrice production. As mentioned in the binzasara entry, dengaku performances using flutes, drums, hand drums, and binzasara were carried out in rice planting season. According to
the Rakuyō dengaku-ki section in the Chōya gunsai, a granddengaku was held in Kyōto in the summer of the first year of
Eichō (1096). The account tells us that the origins of this dengaku are not known, but it apparently spread from rural communities to aristocratic society. Performers made a clamor
day and night, playing music and dancing like crazy persons
in public offices, temples, and out on the streets. They were
dressed as gorgeously as possible and, according to thisaccount, even the aristocrats were tempted to join them. The
uproar extended throughout the city.
Dengaku performances were prayers for a good harvest; thepicture helps us imagine what they were like. The man playing a flute wears a broad-brimmed rush hat and balances on
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clogs with single supports. The other four wear rush hats;
two are holding large drums up to their chests, one is playing
the binzasara, and the fourth is acrobatically playing the hand
drum. The Mogi volume of the Eiga monogatari, describes indetail a dengaku performance in the rice fields. While it isbelieved that these performances were originally carried out
by farmers, in the Konjaku monogatarishū, Buddhist priests
appear in the role of dengaku performers. Evidently some
occupational specialization had occurred.

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1 priest playing gitchō
2 shaved head3 wide-sleeved kimono
4 stick for hitting the ball
5 ball6 child playing gitchō
7 hair tied in back63 Gitchō
The term gitchō for this version of stickball seems to have
evolved by reversing the pair of characters used to write
dakyū (“hit the ball”). An alternative rendering uses a pair ofcharacters meaning “ball and stick,” also read gitchō. The
Kottōshū describes the game in detail. To summarize, theterm dakyū originally referred to a game played on horseback; the players sought to hit the ball into a goal. The gamehas now almost disappointed except in Tokushima
Prefecture. Gitchō was the same game, but played on foot.
The ball used was apparently quite large. The Genpei jōsuiki
states that people made a ball shaped like the head of a priest
and had a good time hitting it as in gitchō or kicking andstamping on it, pretending it was Taira no Kiyomori’s head.
The Heike monogatari states that Monkaku spoke ill of theretired emperor Go-Toba as a mere gitchō player, because theretired emperor loved the game so much. Clearly the gamewas very popular in Kyōto during the last years of the Heianperiod. There, the game was played during the New Year’s

8 cord for tying the hair
9 kosode
10 sashinuki
11 man with tate-eboshi playing gitchō
12 tate-eboshi
13 kariginu
14 shading eyes with the handcelebration. According to the Tsurezuregusa, in the annual
event called sagichō, the gitchō balls used during the New
Year’s games were taken from the Shingon-in area of theinner court precincts to the Shinsen’en court garden andburned. In the area around Kyōto, the annual burning of New
Year’s decorations and symbols such as the sacred ropes andpine decorations occurs on the fifteenth day of the new year
and is also known as sagichō. That naming suggests how popular the game was in the past. Indeed, after the game itself
died out, it became customary to use beautifully coloredgitchō sticks as auspicious presents bringing good luck in the
New Year.

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