Birds and Flowers of Autumn and Winter

The Kano school rendered plants, birds, and landscapes with remarkable realism while also framing them as auspicious emblems of prosperity, longevity, and harmony. As the official painters to Japan’s political and military elite, Kano artists created works that both beautified architectural spaces and visually reinforced their patrons’ authority and good fortune. Bird-and-flower paintings (kachō-ga), often set against luminous gold-leaf backgrounds, celebrated the changing seasons and reflected the central place of nature’s cycles in Japanese life. This screen features paintings shaped like dansen (rigid handheld fans), creating the illusion of looking through two windows onto seasonal landscapes. Gold leaf applied to the reverse of the silk lends the scenes a subtle glow and depth. On the right, chrysanthemums with a magpie, Chinese bellflowers, arrowroot plants, pampas grass, and cotton roses evoke autumn, while on the left, the sasanqua camellia, narcissus flowers, withered reeds, bluejays, azure-winged magpies, and mandarin ducks symbolize winter.