Originating in Japan in the sixth or seventh century through trade with the Chinese Empire, emakimono art spread widely among the aristocracy in the Heian period.

[3] Later, the advent of the Kamakura period was marked by internal strife and civil wars, which spread and favoured the rise of the warrior class (the samurai); the latter put into the spotlight a realistic, less mannered and esoteric, aristocratic culture (the Zen school also appeared at that time).

In addition, from these social disturbances a fertile ground for Buddhist proselytism was born, as several new schools, mainly from the Pure Land (jōdo) tradition, appeared in Japan.

Plastic iconography remained important for transmitting religious doctrines, so much so that painting played a big role, in particular the emakimono with accounts of the foundation of temples or the lives of famous monks.

[7] The emakimono, divided into two parts, narrates the legend of the lives of two Korean Buddhist monks who established the Kegon sect in the 7th century in their country (then the kingdom of Silla, or Shiragi in Japanese) after several pilgrimages to China: Gishō (Uisang) and Gengyō (Wonhyo).

Struck by this miracle, she throws herself into the water, swearing to protect her beloved forever, and transforms into a dragon to carry Gishō's boat on her back for the rest of the journey to Korea.

[9] Although the date of creation and the author remain subject to interpretation, it seems clear that the scrolls approach a pictorial style characteristic of Kamakura art, marked by a certain realism and a proximity to humanity.

However, scholars assume that the work shows the first influences of Chinese Song painting in Japan (characterized by the wash technique), through the fine India ink lines and the pale colour which reveals the movements of the brush.

[8][14] This style of painting gives the whole emakimono a light and airy tone; it seems clear that Myōe, a scholar of Chinese spirituality, had brought in a large number of contemporary works from the mainland which probably inspired the studio of monk-painters associated with the temple.

The treatment of the water, depicted as fine wavelets in ink enhanced with light blue, the fiercer colours of the dragon and the frail human beings give the whole a "remarkable sense of drama".

[10] Some historians also the link the work with the Jōkyū War (1221), during which Myōe protected ladies of the court; the legend of Zenmyō could have been a springboard to convert them to Kegon Buddhism by providing them with a model of a virtuous woman.