Title: Hyakuba no zu Emaki (Hundred Horses Picture Scroll), Circa 1650-1750. A Kano School Emakimono Handscroll with Paintings of Various Landscapes and Scenes, Including Mount Fuji and Horses Frolicking
Author: Likely Kano School
Condition: Good
An Early to Mid Edo Period emakimono handscroll, which I’ve tentatively dubbed the Hyakuba no zu Emaki, or Hundred Horses Picture Scroll. As the title would entail, the manuscript is a large and beautiful painted series of landscapes and scenes, including Mount Fuji at the beginning, and numerous horses frolicking, the latter being a popular subject among various painting schools.
Though the box and scroll are bereft of any labels, and the paintings themselves lack a signature, the stylistic design of the landscapes, and the way in which the horses are drawn, is very much in the style of the Kano School, and this was likely a production by a student.
The paintings have been laid down and bound in a scroll for preservation, with a beautiful brocade decorated cover of green against some faded floral patterns, and there are jikusaki (knobs), albeit detached ones.
One brocade bound emakimono (picture scroll) on fine paper, roughly 27 x 580 cm
This hand scroll is in good shape, with some rubbing and wear to the brocade cover. There are several old repairs to the rear, and one small tear to the lower margin of a painting section. There is creasing and some soiling throughout, and the final section of 72cm is cleanly detached from the rest of the scroll.