Ban Dainagon Ekotoba, National Treasure picture scroll in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Ban Dainagon Ekotoba is a three-scroll emakimono painted on paper with mineral pigments. The scrolls measure about 31.5 cm high and over 26 m long in total. The painting shows the 866 Ōtenmon Conspiracy: on the right, red-pillared buildings with grey tiled roofs step downward; on the left, a dense crowd of figures in dark and red robes.
Tokiwa Mitsunaga created the scrolls in the late 12th century as a visual account of the Otemmon Conspiracy from 866. His work captured the political intrigue surrounding the imperial gate fire and the power struggles that followed.
The scroll is a Japanese National Treasure, held at the Idemitsu Museum of Arts in Tokyo since 1982; it passed through the hands of Mogami Yoshiaki and the Sakai family before that. Its three sheets carry only four text passages, two each in the second and third scrolls, so the story is told almost entirely in paint. In the children's quarrel scene the artist repeats figures within one frame to show successive moments.
The Idemitsu Museum in Chiyoda preserves the complete three-volume set under controlled conditions. Due to their fragility, the originals are displayed only occasionally and are usually replaced by high-quality reproductions.
The narrative technique displays multiple time sequences within single scenes, creating a cinematic effect. This method emerged centuries before moving pictures were invented.
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