Browse Items (23 total)

White Elephant and Other Beasts is a pair of six-fold painted screens, also known as byōbu, attributed to Itō Jakuchū (伊藤 若冲). The pair of screens depicts a variety of local, exotic, and mythical creatures. One of the pair is dedicated to depictions…

Although not native to Japan, peacocks were popular motifs in Buddhist art. They were associated with prosperity and culture as well as the Buddhist Peacock King, Mahamayuri. They were considered Chinese birds. Peonies shared these noble reputations,…

Old Pine Tree and White Phoenix depicts a white phoenix perched on a pine tree entwined with morning glory vines. Above the phoenix a grey sparrow is perched in the pine tree. The composition of the painting is asymmetrical with no vanishing point.…

Pair of Phoenixes and Rising Sun is not a painting in the Colorful Realm of Living Beings set. Painted right before the Colorful Realm, Pair of Phoenixes and Rising Sun has a setting that is much more ornate and detailed than later paintings…

One of the many chicken and rooster paintings from the "Colorful Realm of Living Beings" set, this painting depicts a white rooster and hen high in a pine tree beneath a red sun. Itō Jakuchū was an avid chicken painter, the fowl becoming primary…

Five white cranes with red crests rest in front of a blooming plum tree. This painting garnered attention for the complex web of crane legs at the base of the painting. The maze makes it difficult to ascertain which pair is attached to which bird.…

Two pheasants, one male and one female, perch in a snow-covered pine tree surrounded by out-of-season peony blossoms. Itō Jakuchū used the snow to make "windows" that surround some of the delicate peony blossoms. Jakuchū depicted the snow using two…

This detail is included for the Natural History and Naturalism Exhibition as an example of a botanical representation being repurposed by Edo artists as a floral motif. It is also included to emphasize Itō Jakuchū's successful natural science…

This detail is included for the Natural History and Naturalism Exhibition as an example of a botanical representation being repurposed by Edo artists as a floral motif. It is also included to emphasize Itō Jakuchū's successful natural science…

This depiction of male and female phoenixes on gold leaf is a one two-fold standing screen. The scene depicts one male and one female phoenix. The male phoenix sits in a tree with no branches flanked with white peonies. The female rests in bamboo. It…