Originating in Japan in the sixth or seventh century through trade with the Chinese Empire, art spread widely among the aristocracy in the Heian period. An consists of one or more long scrolls of paper narrating a story through texts and paintings. The reader discovers the story by progressively unrolling the scroll with one hand while rewinding it with the other hand, from right to left (according to the then horizontal writing direction of Japanese script), so that only a portion of text or image of about is visible.
