From jacket flap:
Japan’s brief but glorious Momoyama period (1568-1603) was a time of optimism, exuberance, and expansiveness in all fields of endeavor, from art to commerce. The joie de vivre and sense of personal freedom that characterized the late 16th and early 17th centuries are nowhere expressed more vividly than in large screen and panel paintings of genre scenes, a subject that first emerged as a definite artistic entity during the Momoyama period.
This book, generously illustrated with 153 photographs including 34 in full color, traces the evolution of genre painting, in the context of the social and historical background of the age, from its tentative beginnings around 1500 to its culmination a century and a half later.