Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons

Kano Sanboku

Not on view

The right-hand screen features plum blossoms with other spring flowers growing nearby; farther to the left, the irises of summer are in bloom. Nightingales and cuckoos celebrate both seasons. The left-hand screen depicts autumn and winter, represented by hibiscus, snowy bamboo, a kingfisher, and pheasants. Each screen bears two seals of Kano Sanboku. Little is known about Sanboku except that he was a student of both Kano Sanraku (1559–1635) and Kano Sansetsu (1590–1651), the two great masters of the Kano school’s Kyoto branch. His subdued depiction of the four seasons recalls the art of Sansetsu and is almost devoid of color, shunning the exuberance that appealed to the taste of warrior clients of the early Edo period.

Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons, Kano Sanboku (Japanese, active mid-17th–early 18th century), Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on paper, Japan

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Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons, Kano Sanboku (Japanese, active mid-17th–early 18th century), Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on paper, Japan
Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons, Kano Sanboku (Japanese, active mid-17th–early 18th century), Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on paper, Japan

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