E-awase

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title: "E-awase" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["japanese-games", "japanese-painting"] description: "Japanese game" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-awase" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Japanese game ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox game"]

Field	Value
name	E-awase
subtitle	絵合
image	“‘A Lovely Garland’ (Tamakazura)- Tamatori-ama,” from the series Scenes amid Genji Clouds Matched with Ukiyo-e Pictures (Genji-gumo ukiyo e-awase) MET DP-18165-001.jpg
caption	An Ukiyo-e print from Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s e-awase series. The image depicts Tamatori, Fujiwara no Kamatari’s driver, fighting an octopus, 1845-6
years	Kamakura period
players	2 teams
skills	Painting
::

| name = E-awase | subtitle = 絵合 | image = “‘A Lovely Garland’ (Tamakazura)- Tamatori-ama,” from the series Scenes amid Genji Clouds Matched with Ukiyo-e Pictures (Genji-gumo ukiyo e-awase) MET DP-18165-001.jpg | caption = An Ukiyo-e print from Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s e-awase series. The image depicts Tamatori, Fujiwara no Kamatari’s driver, fighting an octopus, 1845-6 | years = Kamakura period | genre = | players = 2 teams | setup_time = | playing_time = | random_chance = | skills = Painting

E-awase was a pastime popular among Japanese nobles during the Kamakura period, although its history dates back to the Heian.

In an e-awase contest, participants were divided into two teams, and created paintings on a predetermined topic, which were then judged by their peers, as in the older uta-awase poetry contests. It was a popular entertainment at parties and social gatherings. An e-awase contest of this type appears in The Tale of Genji, forming the central theme of chapter 17.

An alternative version of the picture contest was simpler, with players matching or associating pre-painted images. This was a development of an older game known as ja (貝合 "shell matching"). Matching scenes would be painted on the inner surfaces of a number of clam shells; these would then be spread on the floor, image side down, and turned over by competitors who would attempt to match the corresponding images.

References

References

1. Louis Frédéric. (2002). "Japan Encyclopedia". Harvard University Press.
2. (2003). "The Prints of Isoda Koryūsai: Floating World Culture and Its Consumers in Eighteenth-century Japan". University of Washington Press.
3. Samuel L. Leiter. (2002). "A Kabuki Reader: History and Performance". M.E. Sharpe.
4. (1986). "Tales of Japan: scrolls and prints from the New York Public Library". Oxford University Press.
5. [[Jacob Raz]]. (1983). "Audience and Actors: A Study of Their Interaction in the Japanese Traditional Theatre". Brill Archive.
6. Murasaki Shikibu. (24 April 2003). "The Tale of Genji". Penguin Books Limited.
7. Mary Flanagan. (30 September 2009). "Critical Play: Radical Game Design". MIT Press.
8. Asahi Shinbunsha. (1996). "Japan quarterly". Asahi Shimbun.

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