handscroll

The handscroll is a long narrow scroll for displaying a series of scenes in Chinese, Japanese (makimono, 巻物), or Korean painting and calligraphy. The handscroll presents an artwork in the horizontal form and can be exceptionally long, usually measuring up to a few meters in length and around 25–40 cm in height. Handscrolls are generally viewed starting from the right end. This kind of scroll is intended to be viewed flat on a table while admiring it section for section during the unrolling as if traveling through a landscape. In this way, this format allows for the depiction of a continuous narrative or journey.