Focus on this artwork and explain the Style and composition.
The Kegon Engi Emaki is an example of the Yamato-e style, and demonstrates the evolution of painting in the Kamakura period. Indeed, the Kamakura samurai valued more realistic and dynamic narratives (historical and religious). However, scholars assume that the work shows the first influences of Chinese Song painting in Japan (characterized by the wash technique), through the fine India ink lines and the pale colour which reveals the movements of the brush.  This style of painting gives the whole emakimono a light and airy tone; it seems clear that Myōe, a scholar of Chinese spirituality, had brought in a large number of contemporary works from the mainland which probably inspired the studio of monk-painters associated with the temple.Another, more didactic, work on the teachings of the sect (including the Kegon sutra, known as Kegonkyō in Japanese, and Avatamsaka Sutra in Sanskrit), is the Kegon Gojūgosho Emaki (13th century), similarly influenced by the Song school.Several of the scenes in the Kegon Engi Emaki are among the classics of emakimono art: particularly that in which Zenmyō is transformed into a dragon carrying Gishō's boat on her back, the narrative summit of the third Gishō scroll. The treatment of the water, depicted as fine wavelets in ink enhanced with light blue, the fiercer colours of the dragon and the frail human beings give the whole a "remarkable sense of drama".The composition of the work follows most of the canons of the emakimono of the day, with long sections of continuous paintings contextualised by short sections of calligraphic text. The transitions between scenes in the paintings appear not very marked and convey an impression of movement, fluidity, as the reader unfolds the emakimono. In the third scroll, a succession of scenes alternately showing Zenmyō and the ship moving away creates a cinematic narrative rhythm. As for the texts, they are very brief and indicate the words or actions of the characters; their purpose could have been to be read aloud during sessions of explanation of the scrolls to the faithful. Still unusual at the time, the characters' lyrics were sometimes calligraphed just above them, very loosely and in Japanese characters (kana). Art historians have traditionally attributed the texts to Myōe himself, although disputes have since arisen, notably in relation to the Gengyō portion.
Kegon Kamakura period samurai ink Myōe Zen wash Gishō kana Yamato-e Avatamsaka Sutra Gengyō emakimono Song