Night Attack on the Sanjō Palace
Kamakura Period, Japan. c. 1250-1300 C.E. Handstroll (ink and color on paper)
The scene appearing here, entitled "A Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace" is the property of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and provides a rare and valuable depiction of Japanese armor as it was worn during the early Kamakura era (1185-1333). By contrast, most surviving picture scrolls showing warriors date from the fourteenth century and show later styles of armor.
Form:
- Emaki- Japanese hand scroll
- Example of otoko‐e, “men’s paintings”
- The action moves from right to left
- Strong diagonal lines emphasizing movement
- Swift, active brushstrokes Handscroll; ink and color on paper
Function:
- Designed to be unrolled and viewed up close
- Informative about the Heiji Rebellion
Content:
- Vibrant outline and color
- The characters appear multiple times
- Narrative scene
- Tangled mass of bodies
- Lone archer leads escape from burning palace with commander on horseback
- "from the royal mansion’s walled gateways, unpainted wooden buildings linked by corridors, bark roofs, large shutters and bamboo blinds that open to verandas, to the scores of foot soldiers, cavalry, courtiers, priests, imperial police, and even the occasional lady—each individualized by gesture and facial expression from horror to morbid humor, robes, armor, and weaponry easily identifiable according to rank, design, and type"
- Palace ceiling makes a lightening bolt shape and divides the scene
Context:
- Made in the 13th century commemorating a 12th century incident
- Elevated viewpoint, heightening the scene's value
- Made during the Kamakura period
- Valuable historical reference on the period
- Story:
- Violence escalates with shoving and colliding carts and warriors
- The escalation includes stabbing and slashing
- Sanjô palace incident just part of the Heiji insurrection 1159-60
- Scroll was part of another set
- gunki monogatari- "war tales"
- Precedes Kamakura Shogunate
- Events originated in Kyoto
- Daughters functioned as tools in political marriages
- Shogunate- ruled by Samurai
- Nobles and Emperors resolved rivalries with Samurai Sanjô Palace was the home of former Emperor Go‐Shirakawa
- Depicts coup and Go-Shirakawa's capture
- Rebels parade severed heads of resistors
- Remainder of story is lost
- Night attack was Fujiwara no Nobuyori’s bid to seize power
Cross Cultural Comparisons: Historical Events
- Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- Goya, Y No Hai Remedio
- Column of TrajanFull Size Image of the Scroll
Sources:
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/south-east-se-asia/japan-art/a/night-attack
http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/night-attack-on-the-sanj%C3%B4-palace-from-the-illustrated-scrolls-of-the-events-of-the-heiji-era-heiji-monogatari-emaki-24523
Barron's
