The Life of Buddha, second book (Shaka no Honji, ge)
Description
The book belongs to the category of nara ehon, a type of
polychrome, illustrated narratives published from the Muromachi
period though to the first half of the Edo period. The term nara
ehon has been widely applied to all illustrated books from these
periods since the Meiji era, but its origin is unclear. The format
of nara ehon differs, depending on the period. Early examples from
the Momoyama to the very early Edo period are tall, measuring about
30 cm in height, a vertical format similar to a European quarto.
The examples produced from the Kanei era onwards, within the first
half of the Edo period were more of a horizontal proportion. They
were also generally based on the genre of otogizōshi, short
stories that emerged from the Kamakura period onwards, a majority
of them focusing on the Muromachi period. During the latter half of
the 17th century, the topic shifted to stories about the
aristocracy or the wealthy merchant class, before the popularity
nara ehon began to decline. This example can possibly dated to the
Keichō era (1596-1615).
