bokuba-zu　牧馬図

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Lit. pictures of horses at pasture. One type of genre painting *fuuzokuga 風俗画, included among both warrior genre pictures and horse pictures. Bokuba-zu feature grazing horses together with grooms and mounted warriors. According to documents, the third floor of Azuchijou 安土城 constructed by Oda Nobunaga 織田信長 (1534-82) had 20 panels painted with scenes of grooms and pasturing horses. The pair of six-panel screens in Tokyo National Museum by Hasegawa Touhaku 長谷川等伯 (1539-1610) is typical of the genre, depicting 18 horses of many varieties frolicking in nature, while numerous grooms attempt to tame them. The great importance of horses for warfare made this subject a meaningful theme for warrior patrons, and the subject was most popular in the Momoyama period. Bokuba-zu stand half-way between pictures of wild horses *gunba-zu 群馬図, and pictures of horse training *chouba-zu 調馬図.

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