The Procession of the Lord Yoritomo

Catalog note / 解説

Sadahide has represented the procession of a regional lord (<i>daimyo</i>) under the guise of a procession accompanying Lord Yoritomo, the great 12th-century military leader. The procession follows the Tokaido highway, which was Japan’s main coastal route from Edo to Kyoto during the Edo period (1600-1868). Sadahide appears to have set the scene in the bay at Kamakura, the seat of Yoritomo’s military government. The enormous scale of the procession can be judged from the leading figures that disappear into the distance. The Tokugawa shoguns, who in effect ruled Japan from 1603 to 1867, introduced a system whereby all <i>daimyo</i> were required to spend alternate years at Edo (modern-day To…