Yamato-e very often depict narrative stories, with or without accompanying text, but also show the beauty of nature, with famous places or the four seasons . The pictures are often on scrolls that can be hung on a wall (), handscrolls () that are read from right to left, or on a folding screen () or panel (). Although they received their name from the Yamato period, no Yamato-e paintings from this period survive, nor from several centuries afterwards. Yamato-e pictures rather stand for a style and are not restricted to a particular period.