In the late Muromachi period (1392-1573), Chinese-inspired pictures known as uma-ya-zu (stable pictures) became prominent among themes intimately connected with the daily lives of samurai. Stable painting in the form of handscrolls can be traced back to the fifteenth century and no doubt provided an important source for such screens. In the folding-screen format, the stable and horse theme was conceived in a simple repetitive formula intended to produce a decorative effect.

Scholars divide stable screens into two categories according to the handling of subject matter. The more common genre-type stable screens include spectators and guests engaged in a variety of activities; the earliest date to the beginning of the Momoyama period. Non-genre screens, following an archaic format, are part of a portrait tradition (nise-e) of famous horses and oxen but are expanded to monumental size.

This screen, the left half of a pair of six-fold screens of the non-genre type (the other half is not owned by the Academy), is one of several recorded examples based on the early format. A large stable covers the entire length of the screen. On each panel a different horse is depicted, but all are sturdy, high-spirited, finely bred, and dynamically posed. This screen repeats, in its essentials, the left half of a pair of six-fold screens of the Muromachi period by a Tosa-school artist and now in the Imperial Household Collection. This early screen served as a model for a number of later paintings, including the Academy example. The hardness of the brush line in the delineation of the horses in the Academy screen suggests a Kano school work of the late Momoyama period. As such, the screen may be regarded as a rare example of an archaic yamato-e tradition borrowed by Kano decorators in their search for themes that would delight the warrior class of Momoyama times.

Japanese Momoyama period (1573-1615) by an unknown artist from the Kano school. Ink and color on paper with gold leaf. Five panels of a six-fold screen. Poster size: 24 x 36 in. Image size: 18 1/4 x 33 1/2 in.