Dog-chasing event

Shooting dogs from horseback was a form of samurai training that began in the Muromachi period (1392–1573). During the peaceful 1600s this activity was revived as a samurai sporting event that attracted a large number of spectators.
As a sport, dog chasing involved two teams of seventeen participants each. The riders used softly padded arrows to avoid seriously hurting the dog, which was released within a circle of rope to begin the game. A strike on the dog’s torso scored points; strikes on the head or legs did not count. The winning team usually received prizes of lengths of white silk cloth.
In this screen, one team forms a circle and waits for the release of a dog, as the other team lines up and waits its turn. As many as eighteen pairs of screens on the same subject are known in Japan and the West. Later examples, such as this pair, show greater numbers of spectators, likely reflecting the growing popularity of the sport.