The quality of life in medieval Heian can be gathered to some extent from a section of a pair of screens entitled "Scenes in and around the Capital," or Rakuchu Rakugai zu. The screens are believed to have been presented to the warrior Uesugi Kenshin (1530-78) by one of Japan's unifying leaders, the general Oda Nobunaga. They depict the famous Gion festival that takes place annually in Kyoto. Young men pull the gaily colored floats through the streets as the population looks on. The Rakuchu Rakugai zu also serves as a precious historical document of residential and commercial architecture during the Muromachi period. The screens show detailed pictures of Kyoto's inhabitants at work and at play. A vendor hawks bolts of cloth from his shop, a group of monks goes door to door taking donations for a new bell, a group of samurai ride self-importantly into the newly erected Nijo Castle, and a mother helps her small child relieve himself on a street corner.
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