Falconry was probably first brought to Japan from Korea in the sixth century. At first it was practiced almost exclusively by members of the Imperial Court, but as the warrior class began to gain power at the end of the Heian Period, the Samurai class began to practice falconry as well.
The sport was not restricted in any legal way until Tokugawa Ieyasu came to power in 1603, but it was always a very expensive pastime, involving not only the rarity and cost of the eyasses, and the costs of housing, raising, and training them, but it also required access to a large amount of space, and a lot of time and effort, things presumably denied to all but the most fortunate of the common classes. With the opening of the Tokugawa Period, the wars of the Sengoku period came to an end, and falconry became one of the primary outlets for the militaristic energies of the Samurai class, along with archery, swordplay, and horse racing. Tokugawa Ieyasu enjoyed falconry very much himself, and used it as a symbol of his authority, and of his plans for the country, transforming the violence of his conquest into a peacetime system of laws. He established restrictions on which ranks of creatures a Samurai or Daimyo (feudal lord) could hunt, from geese and ducks up to the more valuable swans. He also set up certain lands as takaba (鷹場), or falconry fields; practicing the sport on all other lands was forbidden. Many of these designated lands were farmers' lands; the peasant farmers were forced to provide labor for the hunt, which often took days or even weeks, and were forbidden from interfering with the Prey creatures of their lands, despite the damage geese and other animals might do to crops.
Falcons, and other birds of prey, became increasingly symbols of status, and in the early Edo period, many paintings were commissioned by Samurai. The first images of hawks and eagles in Japan appeared in the 14th and 15th centuries, copied from Chinese paintings. As the visibility and popularity of falconry grew, at the beginning of the Edo period, images of the hunt, of mews, of wild birds of prey, and even portraits of favored individual birds were increasingly commissioned.
However, as the Edo period went on, the system of 'alternate attendance' (Sankin kotai) drained the wealth of the Daimyo, and at the same time, the merchant class was becoming more and more wealthy. By the late 17th century, falconry was already becoming rarer, while the cultural significance of it, and the corresponding desire for images of the status symbols continued to grow. Kabuki, novels, fashions, and other forms of cultural entertainment were blossoming, and the motifs and images of eagles, hawks, and falcons found their way into these art forms as well. Though merchants and other commoners were still forbidden from practicing falconry, and probably could not have afforded the expense, they could increasily afford to commission paintings and woodblock prints, to display in their homes and businesses, gaining for themselves a piece of the status and authority the Samurai had once held exclusively for themselves.
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