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Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba

History, Religious and Mythological Paintings

Moko Shurai Ekotoba, meaning Illustrated Account of the Mongol Invasion, is a set of two Japanese illustrated handscrolls commissioned by the samurai Takezaki Suenaga, who lived from 1246 to 1314, as a record of his own wartime deeds during the Mongol invasions of Japan. The scrolls illustrate Suenaga actions in two major battles, the Battle of Bun ei in 1274 and the naval Battle of Koan in 1281, combining narrative text with painted scenes of mounted samurai, exploding gunpowder bombs deployed by the Mongol forces, and combat at sea. As one of the few surviving pictorial records of the Mongol invasions made from a Japanese participant own perspective, the scrolls are an important historical and artistic source for understanding thirteenth-century Japanese warfare. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Partially Attested
Year Created
1293 1
The work dates itself to 1293, but scholars believe it was composed between the late 13th and early 14th century, and the illustrations were modified many times afterwards
Location
Museum of the Imperial Collections, Tokyo Imperial Palace 1
Commissioned By
Takezaki Suenaga 1
Classification
Genre
Painting 1
Sources
1. Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba (Wikipedia)
  • Introduction, paragraph 2, sentence 1
    The work dates itself to 1293
  • Introduction, paragraph 2, last sentence
    kept in the Museum of the Imperial Collections at Tokyo Imperial Palace
  • Introduction, sentence 1
    commissioned by the samurai Takezaki Suenaga
  • Genre reference
    The scrolls illustrate Suenaga actions in two major battles, the Battle of Bun ei in 1274 and the naval Battle of Koan in 1281, combining narrative text with painted scenes of mounted samurai, exploding gunpowder bombs deployed by the Mongol forces, and combat at sea.
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