# Genre Scenes (Fūzoku byōbu)

- By: Artist unknown (Japanese)
- Date: About 1640
- Medium: Six-fold screen; ink, color, gold and silver on paper
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Painting: 147 × 349 cm (57 7/8 × 137 7/16 in.); Frame: 160.5 × 364 cm (63 1/4 × 143 5/16 in.)
- Culture: Japan
- Credit line: Gift of Robert Allerton
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/8044)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/ca3b44f4a859906c201bd5ddfa3522c7.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

The large building complex depicted here contains a bathhouse, teahouse, kitchen, puppet-show theater, and a games room. Inside, commoners and aristocrats alike enjoy the various forms of entertainment, while outside, people dance, play music, and wrestle. A kasamawashi, a street performer who balances objects on a spinning umbrella, performs to the left of the dancers. In scenes of merriment like this one, Japanese artists often depicted figures fighting—this painting includes a sumo match and people arguing over a game of shōgi—to emphasize the heightened levels of energy and excitement.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0