Birds and flowers

A variety of birds such as herons, jays, kingfishers, mandarin ducks, geese, mynas, finches, and egrets stand, fly, or swim in and around a large body of water amidst peonies, reeds, rocks, and aged tree branches. Several pairs of similar screens exist in collections in Japan and abroad. Once attributed to Sesshu, a celebrated sixteenth-century ink painter, this pair (B60D11 and B60D12) is now thought to be the work of a close follower. The signatures and seals, which would date the screens to 1497, may have been added later. Abundant examples of this type of painting indicate that there was a great deal of demand for bird-and-flower paintings in the Muromachi period.