Senmen koshakyōSenmen koshakyō
Overview

I.
The Senmen koshakyō (fan paper sutras), properly theSenmen Hokekyō sasshi, is a Heian period decorative sutra.
Decorative sutras are sutras copied on a beautiful painting
background, a genre scene or bird-and-flower painting, forexample. They exist in two formats: handscrolls such as the
Heike nōkyō, which is owned by the Itsukushima Shrine, and“butterfly books” (detchō-toji sasshi), in which the background painting was executed on fan papers, a sutra copied
over the paintings, and the pages bound into a book, usingglue.
The one extant version of a butterfly book format decorative sutra in relatively good condition is owned by theShitennōji Temple in Ōsaka. It consists of five volumes. The
five volumes include the first volume of the Lotus Sutra(Hoke-kyō) (10 pages), the sixth volume of that sutra (24pages), its seventh volume (23 pages), the Sutra ofMeditation on the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra (Kanfugen-kyō)(16 pages), and the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings (Muryōgikyō) (24 pages). Other volumes and pages originally part ofthis decorative sutra book have been scattered; the templesof Hōryūji and Saikyōji and several families have one or two
pages each, while the pages containing volume eight of the
Lotus Sutra are in the Tokyo National Museum.
An attempt to reconstruct the original form of the book,including the pages are now dispersed, suggests that theSenmen koshakyō included the 28 chapters of the Lotus Sutrain eight volumes, with the Sutra of Meditation on theBodhisattva Samantabhadra and the Sutra of Innumerable
Meanings bringing the total to ten volumes. The cover of
each volume bears a painting of a female in court attire
attending on a Buddha.
When, then, was the Senmen koshakyō created? The highly
abstract hikime kagibana (slit eyes, hooked nose) style used
to draw faces, familiar from the early twelfth century illustrated handscroll of the Genji monogatari emaki (Tale of Genji),
is in the tradition of the court painter style. The relative stiffness of the brushwork lines suggests, however, that it was alater work; the generally accepted date is the latter half of thetwelfth century.

many are quite down to earth. Some seem to derive from literary scenes, but many appear to represent recollections or
imagined scenes. The images of remembered scenes, scenes
from the lives of ordinary people, are quite vivid and cheerful
and were probably based on observation. Where the Senmen
koshakyō particularly stands out is in genre scenes showing
women. No other work shows so much of women’s daily
lives. The illustrations of women by streams or wells, washing things, doing laundry, or drawing water are delightful.
The scenes depicting children’s lives are also noteworthy.
While not examples of a realistic style, the illustrations of, forexample, bird snares, picking chestnuts, and shops are ofgreat help in conveying how people lived at that time. Here
we have selected 21 particularly important pages for detailed
examination.

II.
Most of the background illustrations, which have no relation to the sutras, are genre paintings. In some, outlines wereprinted using a woodblock and then the subjects colored in.
It may thus be tempting to describe them as the oldest surviving woodblock prints, but they are not true prints, for theartists used woodblocks only to produce underdrawings. The
result is, however, that some of these paintings have similar
compositions. The use of woodblocks suggests that copies ofthese sutras using the same background paintings were produced in large numbers.
The illustrations could not be described as realistic, but

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1 woman with kinukazuki
2 kinukazuki
3 kosode (plain)
4 hakama
5 taka-ashida
6 woman carrying a bundle on her head
7 cloth bundle
8 clothing
9 uchigi (plain)
10 skirt
11 ashida
12 woman in ichimegasa
13 wearing one’s hair down
14 ichimegasa
15 uchigi
16 mat?
17 straw sandals (zōri)

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1 Uchigi and Kinukazuki
The woman at the left is covering her head with an uchigi
and is wearing kosode, hakama, and taka-ashida. The woman
at the center carries a bundle of kimono on her head andwears kouchigi and hira-ashida. The woman at the rightwears ichimegasa, kouchigi, and straw sandals (zōri), and iscarrying what seems to be a mat on her left arm. We can consider all these forms of attire as street clothes common tofemales at the time. Uchigi is explained in the Wamyō ruijūshō(a tenth century dictionary) as a “jacket for women.” There
were two types of uchigi, namely ōuchigi (large uchigi) andkouchigi (small uchigi). According to the eighteenth century
dictionary, the Wakun no shiori, the ōuchigi is said to havebeen used as a gift or ministerial emolument bestowed by theemperor. The Fude no mitama says it was similar to fusuma,
or bed cloths. The uchigi was used not only by women but
also by men. One type of unlined uchigi was called hihegi nosuzushi (Masasuke shōzokushō). The uchikake, which was
widely used in the early-modern era, inherited the characterof the uchigi.
The kouchigi was longer than the kosode. According to the
Diary of Fujiwara no Yorinaga (Taiki bekki), on the occasionof the wedding of Fujiwara no Tashi, eighteen provinces were
put in charge of providing uchikake made of twill (aya) or
plain silk. This can be regarded as evidence of the central
government imposing the requisition of such items on theprovinces. The uchigi was not only worn in the house but also
as street clothes, and occasionally used to cover one’s head,
namely as kinukazuki. Later, not only the uchigi but also thekosode was used for kinukazuki. This custom still remains inseveral places.

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1 small shrine
2 plank roof
3 votive paper
4 shrine fence
5 monument made of a round stone
6 oak tree
7 woman drinking water
8 ichimegasa
9 cord to tuck up sleeves
10 ladle
11 uchigi
12 leggings (habaki)
13 straw sandals (waraji)

2 Female Travel Attire
The woman drinking water is in traveling attire. She wears
an ichimegasa, uchigi, a cord around her shoulders (kakedasuki) to tuck up her clothing, leggings, and straw sandals.
Such travel attire appears to have been common to womentraveling far on foot. A shrine to the god of the crossroad
stands behind her. It is a small shrine with a plank roof andvotive pendants in front of it. A plank fence demarcating thesacred precincts stands by the shrine. There is a naturalstone standing in the front of the shrine but it is not clear
what is worshipped here. Such shrines were found at every
crossing and seemingly the god of the road was the main
object of worship there.
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1 woman washing cloth
2 wearing one’s hair down
3 cord for tying the hair
4 kosode
5 cord to tuck up sleeves
6 skirt of kosode
7 obi
8 cloth
9 wooden bowl
10 ladle
11 woman drinking water
12 wearing one’s hair down
13 ladle
14 uchigi
15 stone well curb
16 spring
17 woman carrying a water bucket on her head
18 wooden container
19 kosode (patterned)
20 apron
21 woman stripped to waist
22 hair tied in back
23 kosode24 barefoot
25 untidy hair
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3 Laundry
Since fabrics were rough and coarse in ancient days, people
did not wash them much by hand but rather generally bystamping on them. Such scenes are depicted in picture
scrolls such as the Saigyō monogatari and the Shigisan engi.
A literary description is found in “The Story of When the
Hermit of Kume First Established the Kumedera Temple” inthe Konjaku monogatarishū, as well: “A young woman was
standing by the river washing clothes. So as to wash theclothes, the woman had tucked her robe up above her shins.”
From this scene, too, we can see people stamped on clothes
to wash them. This style of washing still remains in areas
such as Shirogane, Aomori Prefecture and Tsuyama,
Okayama Prefecture, but it is regarded as an unusual custom
today.

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4 Bleached Cloth, Apron
Once washed, cloth had to be dried. For cloth that had not
yet been sewn, this process probably served not only to dry
the cloth but also to bleach it. In the Ryōnoshūge it says:“Order of the second day of the twelfth month of the firstyear of Yōrō (717). Concerning the bleached cloth of Hitachi,
put the cloth made by three people into one bundle.” A poem
in Volume 14 of the Man’yōshū reads, “take the cloth I havewoven and bleach it at the Tama River so that it becomessmooth,” telling us that woven cloth was made soft andsmooth by the process of washing and bleaching. In addition,
people also washed sewn garments. This work had been thework of women from ancient days. In this illustration, awoman with her hair down wears a wide-sleeved hitoe, anapron, and taka-ashida. Aprons were called uwami andexplained as “a garment to cover hakama” (Wamyō ruijūshō).
This type of garment developed into what is called “apron of
the breadth of three pieces of cloth” (mihaba maedare),which is widely used today in the area around Kyōto. Most of
the people engaged in washing wear ashida, which may indicate that it was the custom of the time.
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1 fence made of tree branches?
2 cloth
3 woman drying a piece of cloth
4 wearing one’s hair down
5 cord for tying the hair
6 kosode
7 apron8 ashida
9 basin
10 well
11 stakes surrounding a well
12 hinoki fence? (wickerwork)
13 pillar supporting fence
14 horizontal beam supporting fence

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1 hinoki fence? (wickerwork)
2 pillar supporting fence
3 horizontal beam supporting fence
4 vertical plank in well curb
5 hitoe (patterned)
6 laundry pole
7 forked pole
8 woman drying a kimono
9 wearing one’s hair down
10 cord for tying the hair
11 sleeveless kimono
12 cord around one’s waist
13 undergarment
14 ashida
15 basin
16 bowl

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5 Hitoe, Plank Well
A woman is drying a hitoe. The wooden basin by her feetsuggests that the garment has just been washed. Such laundry was dried by hanging it on a pole thrust through thesleeves of the garment. A similar scene can be found in the
Saigyō monogatari emaki. The low fence below the unlined
garment appears to be the broken plank walls of a well. The
custom of using planks vertically for well walls goes back toearly days, and many remains have been found at the site of
Fujiwara palace complex.

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1 brush2 black lacquered box?
3 wearing one’s hair down
4 uchigi
5 hakama
6 ashida
7 woman washing her hair
8 cord to tuck up one’s sleeves (patterned)
9 hakama
10 cord to tuck up sleeves (plain)
11 ladle

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6 Washing Hair, Washing Object
In the Senmen koshakyō, there are many pictures of people
washing things by or drawing water from the waterside or awell. Such activities by the water seem also to have functioned as a kind of recreation. In the lower illustration, two
women are washing their hair. They have tucked up thesleeves of their kimono with a cord. In the illustration above,
another woman is washing something square, which seems

to be a lacquered box. There are two flat brushes as well. Flatbrushes were originally used to apply lacquer (Wamyō ruijū
shō). In later days, they were used for wiping, sweeping, splicing paper with rice glue (Wakan sansai zue), and so on. In
this picture, however, the woman washing is not holding thebrushes in her hand and it seems that they are not for wiping
or sweeping.

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1 oak tree
2 well curb
3 dug well
4 ladle5 woman washing cloth
6 wearing one’s hair down
7 kosode (patterned)
8 cloth9 ashida
10 basin with handles
11 woman washing a bowl
12 cord for tying the hair
13 hitoe
14 cord to tuck up sleeves
15 bowl

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7 WellThe Wamyō ruijūshō explains “well” as a place where theground is dug to draw water. The form of wells varied: theone illustrated above has a round structure with stone walls.
This is known as ishiizutsu (Ruijū meibutsukō). In addition, in
this type of well, water flows naturally from it; thus it was also
called a “dug well” or a “running well.” This kind of well was
frequently made in places where the groundwater level was
high. In some cases, when people dug the ground to a certain
depth, a spring would gush out, while in other cases, pipes
made of hollowed-out bamboo were inserted deep into theground to draw the water upward. Many such wells were
found in Kyōto in earlier days.

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8 By the Well
The well here is a plank well. Most wells of this type weresquare, although there were round ones as well. As with thisimage, square well curbs were set on top of the well. For
most plank wells, water did not flow from the dug hole;rather, people drew water from the groundwater. This well isalso the draw type, and a woman who is traveling is rinsing
her foot with water she has drawn with the well bucket.
Water necessary for the household was carried in a wooden
container on one’s head. This custom can still be found in the
Izu Islands, Satsunan Islands, and Ryūkyū Islands. A naked
child with untidy hair is led by the mother. Children usually
played naked. And as seen in the Ise monogatari, the wellside was a great place for them to play: “tsutsuizuno izutsu ni
kakeshi maro ga take, sugi ni kerashina imo mizaru ma ni(My height that we measured at the well curb has, it seems,
passed the old mark since last I saw you).” We can imagine
that children played near wells like the one depicted in thispicture.

Senmen koshakyō

1 wearing one’s hair down
2 uchigi
3 water bucket (wooden container)
4 well curb (plank square)
5 uchigi
6 well bucket
7 straw sandals (waraji)
8 naked child
9 untidy hair
10 barefoot11 carrying on one’s head
12 water bucket (wooden container)
13 cord for tying the hair
14 cord to tuck up sleeves
15 apron
16 ashida

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1 woman drawing water from a well
2 wearing one’s hair down
3 cord to tuck up sleeves (patterned)
4 well curb
5 rope for a well bucket
6 water bucket (wooden container)
7 girl holding a spouted bowl
8 cord for tying the hair
9 spouted bowl
10 uchigi
11 straw sandals (zōri)
12 tate-eboshi
13 suikan (comma-shaped pattern)
14 waist cord of hakama
15 nubakama (with pattern of leaves)
16 straw sandals (waraji)

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9 By the Well
In general, wells are walled with planks or stones so thatthe soil of the side of the well will not crumble. The part of
the wall appearing above ground level is called idogawa(Morisada mankō). It was rare for each house to own its own
well, and typically wells were shared. On important highways, wells were dug at points where water was hard to find(Engishiki). The well appearing in this picture seems to besuch a public well. A man in traveling attire is drinking water
while squatting by the well. Beyond him, a woman holding akatakuchi sake bowl waits. Katakuchi, a bowl lipped on one
side is in contrast to morokuchi, a bowl lipped on two sides, atype of bowl that generally has a long handle. In the
Sanchūkuden (a manual of dress and interior made in the
mid-Kamakura period), katakuchi sake bowls are explained as“restricted to the master’s use. Sake bowls are only for sakeand should not be used for other things.” They were often
made of silver or copper. The katakuchi in this illustration
seems to be a sake bowl of this sort, but the woman may havebrought it to the well to rinse it. Along with the developmentof pottery, pottery katakuchi became popular and came to be
used not only for sake but also for liquids such as vinegar andsoy sauce, and were widely used in ordinary houses.

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10 By the Well, Thunder
A woman is crouching by the well and covering her headwith her kimono. Is it in fear of thunder? The legend that thethunder god makes thunder by beating small drums is old
and appears already in the Inga-kyō. An image of the thunder
god with many drums appears in the Kitano Tenjin engi, aswell. The thunder god illustrated here does not have horns,
wears a headband, and has a very human expression.

Senmen koshakyō

1 thunder god
2 drum3 mallet4 headband
5 woman covering her head with uchigi
6 uchigi (plain)
7 wearing one’s hair down
8 hakama
9 ashida
10 woman drawing water from a well
11 cord to tuck up sleeves (patterned)
12 rope for a well bucket
13 naked young girl
14 untidy hair
15 barefoot
16 water bucket (wooden container)
17 well curb
18 well curb
19 well walls (vertical planks)

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1 woman looking at rice paddies
2 wearing one’s hair down
3 karaginu
4 fan
5 round pillar
6 bar to support a plank
7 string of noisemakers
8 noisemaker
9 forked pole
10 unharvested rice paddy

11 Noisemaker
A woman leaning on the windowsill holds an open fan in
her right hand and looks at the rice paddies. Noisemakers
are hanging on lines strung across the paddies. In ancientJapan, noisemakers were called hita. In the Tenarai chapterof the Tale of Genji, it says: “The sound of pulling hita wasinteresting and reminded Ukifune of the eastern province she
once saw.” Another excerpt from a scene in the Sarashina
nikki states: “To the west, the wind blowing through pinetrees on Narabi no oka echoes in one’s ears and makes you
lonely. On the flatland, rice paddies reach to the foot of thehills, and the sound of hita gave me a sense of being in arural area and interested me much.” As can be known fromthese excerpts, noisemakers hung everywhere in the ricepaddies in the suburbs of Kyōto. The custom of hanging
noisemakers in rice paddies to scare birds seems to go backto much earlier days, as suggested by a song in Volume 8 of
the Man’yōshū: “koromode ni mishibu tsukumade ueshi ta wohita wagahae mamoreru kurushi (I planted rice plants in thepaddies until my sleeves were stained with water, and I stringhita and struggle to protect my paddies)” (No. 1634).
Noisemakers were called naruko in later days, but it is notclear when the term naruko became more popular than hita.
The word naruko appears in a song in Horikawa-in hyakushu:
16“mitayamori naruko no nawa ni tekakunari harema momienu kiri no minaka ni (The guardian of the imperial rice
fields takes the string of the naruko in his hands, even when
he is in the mist where no blue sky can be seen).” Judging
from this song, it seems that the term naruko became generally used from the end of the Heian period.
Naruko is explained in the Kōka shunjū as follows: “Cutsmall pipes and attach them to a board. The board should belight so that it makes a sound. The board should be about
five to six sun long and seven to eight sun wide. Yet it is better if the board is thin so that it moves in the breeze andmakes sounds.” Therefore, noisemakers were made so thatthey would make noise when a breeze blew, not just when
the string to which they were attached was pulled.

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1 tate-eboshi
2 suikan (patterned)
3 cord around one’s waist
4 nubakama (with pattern of leaves)
5 suikan (patterned)
6 kosode (patterned)
7 nubakama (patterned)
8 fan
9 rope of a bird trap (kobuchi)
10 sunoko
11 pole supporting sunoko
12 sparrow
13 bamboo

12 Bird Trap
Two men are trying to catch sparrows with a bird trap. Thisis a type of trap where the hunter sprinkles bait under asunoko and then, when the sparrow is lured by the bait, traps
it by pulling out the pole supporting the sunoko. In someregions such as Shizuoka, Gifu, Mie, Wakayama, andTokushima, such traps are called kobuchi. The word kobuchi
could be a dialectal form of kuiji, about which the Wakun noshiori notes: “In the Wamyō ruijūshō the character is readkuiji and explained as a machine to catch animals. The
etymology must be kui (stake) and ji (path).” Thus, birds andanimals were hunted not only by bows, swords, and spears
but also with traps. It is clear from a poem in Volume 14 of
the Man’yōshū that this habit goes back to early days:“ashigara no otemo konomo ni sasu wana no kanarumashizu-

mi koro are himo toku (When the sound of the traps I set
here and there in the mountains of Ashigara grow quiet, she
and I will loosen the strings)” (No. 3361). It seems that thissort of trap made a sound when animals were captured.
Small traps like the one depicted in the picture can still befound in various places today, with the improvement thatthey are made so that the trap automatically closes when abird touches a pole or a string. Most of these kinds of trap
aim to catch birds and animals alive, so as to keep them aspets. Aside from traps, birdlime and nets were also used tocatch animals alive. A poem referring to the custom of stringing a rope to catch snipe appears in the Kojiki. Thus there
were various ways to catch animals alive.

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1 woman picking chestnuts
2 wearing one’s hair down
3 sleeveless kimono
4 obi
5 skirt of the sleeveless kimono
6 cord for tying the hair
7 apron8 barefoot
9 chestnuts
10 basket

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13 Chestnut Picking
Four women are picking chestnuts in a chestnut grove.
Among the illustrations of the Senmen koshakyō this scene iswhere the life of ordinary people most strikingly appears.
The women are all barefooted and wear short-sleeved
kimono. Short-sleeved kimono are not much depicted inworks other than the Senmen koshakyō. It may have been the
fashion of a particular period. Short-sleeved kimono became
popular from the late middle ages when they were used as
jackets, such as jinbaori worn on the battlefield. Also many
ordinary women wore sleeveless haori jackets.
The baskets used to put the chestnuts in are similar to
today’s mekago. They seem to have been generally made ofbamboo, as in the section on Hayato in the Engishiki, it statesthat there was an “annual levy for making various baskets:
four hundred eighty stalks of bamboo, to be taken from thebamboo allocated to the office governing the Hayato.” Theamount of bamboo necessary for various baskets is mentioned in the same source as well. Bamboo was also levied forthe emperor’s ceremony of accession. It seems that bamboo
was widely grown in southern Kyūshū. Many such baskets
were probably used when people picked chestnuts or wild
flowers and herbs.

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A child on an oxcart carrying bales of rice is driving the ox.
In the Yosha zukō there is the following discussion of oxcarts:“Carts are mentioned in the entry for the day of kishi of theeighth month of the third year of Kōnin (812), volume 22,
Nihonkōki, where it says ‘the priest Ryōshō was exiled toTanegashima for riding in a cart with a woman’. The necessary materials for building a cart are found in the Engishiki
regulations: For a cart: For the roof (8 shaku long, 3 shaku 4
sun high, and 3 shaku 2 sun wide) and wheels, 28 planks ofkunugi oak; for the handles and spokes, 97 planks of kashi
oak; for the feeder, 2 planks of zelkova (tsuki); for four
gables, four ayumiita-size planks and 5 haku made of hinoki;
one piece of wood for the axle. It seems that in the Nara period people did not like to ride in carts, since there is little
mention of them in laws and regulations. There is not evenan article specifying what ranks of people can ride in carts. In
the Engishiki regulations, there is an article about restricting
going through the gate of the palace in carts but not aboutriding in carts in the city area . . . The fact of citizens riding incarts appears in the regulations related to the police office(danjōdai), and thus this was not restricted.” Regulations
restricting riding in carts began to appear from about the
Kanpyō era (889-98). Carts were used not only for riding but
also for carrying loads.
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1 child driving ox
2 whip3 wearing one’s hair down
4 tying hair back5 suikan (patterned)
6 hakama
7 oxcart
8 ox
9 shaft
10 yoke
11 reins
12 nose ring
13 crupper
14 wheel
15 spoke16 support splint
17 hub18 side panel
19 front board
20 rope tied to the flame
21 bale of rice
22 rope tied horizontally
23 rope tied vertically
24 axle

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1 plank eaves
2 rafter
3 wainscoting (horizontal)
4 bar holding down the roof
5 pillar
6 horizontal beam
7 cloth
8 earthen wall
9 woman carrying a cloth bundle on her head
10 cloth bundle
11 ichimegasa
12 kinu
13 ashida
14 young girl carrying a box on her head
15 box (place mat?)16 square container
17 untidy hair
18 kosode? (with the right side over the left)
19 putting hand in bosom
20 obi21 woman in ichimegasa
22 cloth bundle
23 cord of ichimegasa
24 uchigi
25 straw sandals (zōri)
26 shop
27 cloth
28 cord
29 fish30 wearing one’s hair down
31 kosode (plain)
32 shop counter
33 paper?
34 cord tied around paper
35 tray

36 fruit?
37 woman holding a tray
38 tray
39 kosode (plain)
40 apron
41 ashida
42 threshold
43 woman carrying a tray on her head
44 sleeveless kimono
45 box46 a kind of taro?
47 ditch
48 plank to prevent slippage
49 stake16
50 man looking from a window
51 tate-eboshi
52 kariginu (patterned)
53 resting one’s head on one’s arm
54 pillar
55 koshi-nageshi
56 horizontal beam
57 wickerwork wall
58 shop
59 cloth60 cord61 woman talking with a man
62 wearing one’s hair down
63 uchigi
64 hakama
65 waist cord of hakama
66 straw sandals (zōri)
67 woman carrying on her head
68 cloth bundle
69 ichimegasa

15, 16 Shop
Shops were called mise, derived from the verb misu, toshow, since it was a place to show goods. Usually, goods
were lined up on shelves, and thus shops were also calledtana (shelves) or mise dana (display shelves). The earliest
pictorial representation of such mise dana must be those in
the Senmen koshakyō, together with those in the Nenjūgyōjiemaki. Shops existed much earlier, however. Two markets
were set up at the east and west of the capital according to
the provisions of the Taihō ryō, and many markets were
established in rural areas. The markets in the capital werepermanent while the ones in rural areas were periodical oroccasional. What characterized markets were settled vendors, in contrast to peddlers. Settled vendors displayed goods
and sold them where there was a steady demand, whichdeveloped into the establishment of shops. Thus shops
appeared in markets, and also in front of temples and shrines
where many believers gathered. The latter is what is known
as monzen machi or “temple town”. The two illustrations
given here have exactly the same composition, with slightchanges in figures, displayed goods, or from a wickerwork
wall to a earthen wall; they are not necessarily realistic, but
still can help us imagine the shops of the day.

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70 ashida
71 untidy hair
72 sleeveless kimono (patterned)
73 square container
74 tray
75 shop counter76 tray
77 fruit
78 paper79 cord tied around paper
80 box81 melon
82 ditch
83 plank to prevent slippage
84 stake
85 entrance
86 flat basket
87 putting hand in bosom
88 earthen wall
89 woman in ichimegasa
90 bamboo framework
91 uchigi
92 box
93 fruit
94 chestnuts

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2

1

3

4
5

8

6

10

9
7

1 hitoe (patterned)
2 hitai-eboshi
3 wearing one’s hair down
4 cord for tying the hair
5 wearing one’s hair down (untied)
6 hair parted and tied in two bunches
7 barefoot
8 uchigi (plain)
9 obi
10 playing ashi-zumō

17 Children’s PlayChildren playing in a field are illustrated. The girl at the left
wears hitai-eboshi and is holding up some flowers. The two at
the front are holding the arms of each other, face to face;
they seem to be playing ashi-zumō, a game in which seatedplayers try to upset each other using just their feet. The hairof the child seen from the back is only long enough to cover
the nape of neck, which suggests that this child is less thaneight years old. The child’s kimono has cords sewn on thegarment. Play using toys was infrequent at that time, unlike
today.

Senmen koshakyō

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18

9
1

10
11

2

3

4

6

12

5
8
7

1 wearing one’s hair down
2 lacquered bowl
3 hitoe (patterned)
4 cloth sewn on a child’s kimono
5 ashida
6 uchigi (patterned)
7 straw sandals (zōri)
8 cloth bundle
9 wearing one’s hair down
10 cord for tying the hair
11 suikan
12 hakama

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18 Children’s PlayThree children appear in this scene. The child at the left
wears her hair short, and her wide-sleeved kimono has
clothes sewn on it; this seems to indicate that this child isless than eight years old. The child wears ashida. What she isholding cannot be determined but it could be a lacquered
bowl. The child in the center squats with her back to theviewer; she holds a bundle. The boy wading in the water at
the right wears a warawa-suikan; he is wearing his hair long,and he is not wearing an eboshi, which shows that he has notpassed his coming-of-age ceremony. Therefore, this seems to
be a scene where children aged from seven or eight to fifteen
have met by the water by chance and are playing together.

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11

2

3
13
5
4

8

6

12
9
7

10

19 Kamisogi
The scene of kamisogi of two children is depicted here.
Kamisogi is a ritual but it is likely that it was originally a routine activity. Before kamisogi, there existed the ceremony of
kamioki. Kamioki was also called kamitate and was held at
the age of two in the houses of aristocrats and three in warrior houses. In later days the age when the ceremony washeld shifted to three for boys and two for girls. The main actof kamisogi was to cut the child’s hair to the same length all
around. Later when the hair grew longer, the ceremony offukasogi (deeply cutting) was held. This was in general doneat the age of five for boys and four for girls. In addition to cutting their hair, ceremonies such as having children stand ona go board were included in the ritual. The girl in the illustration appears to have just finished her fukasogi. The boy covering his head with a thin wide-sleeved kimono has not yet had
his kamioki ceremony, and his head is still shaven. Coveringa child’s head with a kimono may have had some ritual purpose.

Senmen koshakyō

1 tate-eboshi
2 suikan (patterned)
3 kosode (patterned)
4 naked young girl
5 bobbed hair
6 crying
7 tray8 child covering his head with an uchigi (shaved head)9 uchigi
10 porch with perpendicular planks
11 wearing one’s hair down
12 uchigi
13 hakama

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8

2

14
15

3

4
19

7
16
9
13

12
11

10
17

6
5
18

20 Bird Cage
A small bird is in a large bird cage. (The opening to thecage is at the top.) A woman is looking in the cage while
squatting and poking a stick inside the cage. The man facing
the woman sits on the branch of a willow, soaks his feet in
the running water, and shades his eyes with his hand. The
bird in the cage seems to be a sparrow. It must have beencaught with a bird trap. In the cage there are perches and at
the points where the perches join, feed bowls. The custom ofmaking a pet of small birds is old and still widely seen today.
Bird cages were used not only for such pets, but also forcocks used in cockfights. The picture scrolls of the Chōjūgiga and the Kokawadera engi show cages for such larger
birds. Considering from how they are depicted, these larger
cages also seem to have been made of bamboo.

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1 woman taking care of a bird
2 wearing one’s hair down
3 kariginu (patterned)
4 kosode
5 nubakama (patterned)
6 straw sandals (zōri)
7 bird cage
8 cord of bird cage
9 water bowl
10 bowl
11 spoon
12 perch
13 stick
14 man soaking his feet in water
15 tate-eboshi
16 suikan (plain)
17 nubakama (patterned)
18 stream
19 willow

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4
3
2

5

6

7
9

1
8
14
12

10
11
13

1 karaginu
2 small shrine
3 plank roof
4 projecting cross rafters
5 door6 shrine fence
7 horizontal beam
8 man worshipping
9 tate-eboshi
10 suikan
11 Buddhist rosary (around neck)12 fan13 undergarment

21 God of the Crossroad, Shrine Functionary
A man in suikan and eboshi sits and prays in front of a small
wooden shrine. This must be a sort of god of the crossroad,which is still enshrined at the corners of many streets in the
Kinki area. The god of the crossroad took many forms suchas michigami, chimatagami, sae no kami, chiburi no kami,
tamuke no kami, and so on, and it protected the surroundingarea and passersby. People traveling faced many unseen troubles, and they needed the protection of such gods. The man
praying has a Buddhist rosary hanging around his neck, but
appears to be a low-grade religious functionary working at arural shrine; this indicates the reality of the amalgation of
Buddhism and Shinto.

Senmen koshakyō

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