Yamato-e and emaki

In the Heian period, pictures of Japanese scenes and customs were called Yamato-e, set against karae, pictures with Chinese subjects; the difference lay in the subject, not the style. Pictures of the months, the seasons, and famous places were painted on screens and sliding doors, closely tied to waka poetry. After Song and Yuan paintings arrived in large numbers in the late Kamakura period, karae came to mean the new Chinese style, and Yamato-e the traditional style since the Heian period; Rinpa and ukiyo-e later flowered on its ground. Emaki tell stories, from temple origin tales to biographies and war tales, with writing (kotobagaki) and pictures in turn on sheets of paper joined sideways, usually about 30 cm high and about 10 m long. A scroll in another style, such as Chinese-style kanga painting, is called a gakan, not an emaki. For the Tale of Genji scrolls, see Genji-e.

A long scroll can't be seen all at once, so it is viewed from the right end, a little at a time. Start at the right edge of the stretch on display and let your eyes travel left as the story moves.

• Genji-e (Genji pictures) 源氏絵→The Tale of Genji Scrolls are the oldest Genji pictures.