Pheasants and Peach Blossoms

This ink-only painting shows two pheasants on a rock, peach blossoms behind them, and spring plants such as dandelions below the rock. It is ink on paper, 112.1 cm high and 50.0 cm wide. An inscription can be seen at the upper left of the picture.

Its style is based on the ink bird-and-flower paintings of the Chinese monk-painter Muqi (active in the 13th century), who was highly valued in the Muromachi period. It is said to follow the expressions and motifs that Motonobu (1477-1559), who established the Kano school's system, organized and that Eitoku (1543-1590) and others inherited.

The artist, Kano Sanraku (1559-1635), served the Toyotomi family as Eitoku's successor, later settled in Kyoto and worked on commissions from the shogunate, and is called the founder of the Kyo-Kano line. Ryugan Zuiken (1560-1636), who wrote the inscription, was a high-ranking monk who served three times as abbot of Myoshin-ji.