Daimyo Procession to Edo ca. 1700 Hishikawa School This deluxe handscroll painted on silk, captures the pageantry of a grand procession of a daimyo (feudal chieftain) and his entourage en route from their home province to Edo (present-day Tokyo), the military capital of the day. During the Edo period, on a biannual basis, daimyo were required to travel to Edo, where the Tokugawa shogunate had been based since the early seventeenth century, and take up residence there under the sankin kōtai (alternate attendance) system. Hundreds of retainers are shown transporting weapons, ceremonial accoutrements, and personal effects that bespeak the daimyos military and financial might. Some are mounted on horses; the daimyo and certain other members of his family are carried in palanquins.In contrast to most depictions of daimyo processions, the scroll opens with a touching scene of a samurai family—a mother nursing a baby, an adult man, a young boy, and two teenage boys—perhaps meant to represent