Birds and flowers

Golden pheasants (Chrysolophus pictus), sparrows (Passer montanus), Japanese tit (Parus cinereus), and other songbirds fill this scene along with peonies and cherry blossoms. Neither these flowers nor these birds would likely be found together in nature, but the gathering that artist Oki Ichiga has created shows just how thoroughly birds and flowers can serve as nature’s decorations.

Trained in Edo (now Tokyo) at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate’s rule, the artist learned the Kano style of painting with elements drawn from Chinese decorative painting practice with subjects that are distinctly Japanese.