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In the Kamakura period (late 12th–14th cent.) the country was governed by the military, which preferred boldness to refinement, action to contemplative atmosphere, and realism to formality. The new class created a demand for paintings and sculptures portraying officials, warriors, priests, and poets. The school of the sculptor Jocho was continued by Kokei, Kaikei, and Unkei, the principal Kamakura sculptor. These artists imbued their works with a vigor and attention to realistic detail that was never equaled.
Takanobu and his son Nobuzane were the most esteemed portrait painters of the age. Most of the fine emakimono that survive today are from the Kamakura period. These scrolls are often executed in continuous narrative form, often with accompanying text, with the same figures appearing many times against a unified background. This method of representation was used with utmost skill and imagination in superb scrolls such as the Tales of the Heiji Insurrection (13th cent., Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston). In this art form the affairs of people construe the main focus of the format, whether the subject is religious (Shigisan-engi) or secular (Tales of Ise).
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