Old Pine Tree and White Rooster and Hen

Old Pine Tree and White Rooster and Hen

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 motifs in the majority of his works. This is one of the only two compositions that depict the sun. Interestingly, this composition shares many elements with Jakuchū's later painting, Old Pine Tree and White Phoenix. The central figures of both compositions are large white birds standing in a pine tree. The birds have bright red markings, that match the brilliant red of the suns in the upper-right side of the composition. Uniquely, the combination of the white rooster and red sun in this composition is associated with elements of yang, the opposite of darkness and night. 

Itō Jakuchū, 伊藤 若冲

Colorful Realm of Living Beings, Museum of Imperial Collections, Tokyo, Japan

http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb.html National Gallery of Art, D.C, http://www.kunaicho.go.jp/e-event/sannomaru02.html Museum of Imperial Collections, Tokyo, Japan.

c. 1759 - 1761

Yukio Lippit

public domain

Colorful Realm of Living Beings

painted hanging scroll

Japanese