Birds in the Art of Japan

Three Crows in Flight; Two Egrets at Rest, Shibata Zeshin (Japanese, 1807-1891), Meiji period (1868-1912), late 19th century, two-panel folding screen, colored lacquer and white pigment on gilt paper. Fishbein-Bender Collection, gift of T. Richard Fishbein and Estelle P. Bender, 2011. All images courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Showcasing works in various media from medieval times to the present, the exhibition Birds in the Art of Japan at the Metropolitan Museum of Art explores how Japanese artists have depicted birds of various species--from crows, ravens and cranes to mynahs, egrets and magpies. Displays of paintings are juxtaposed with modern and contemporary textiles, ceramics, lacquerware, and bamboo art. 

For this folding screen painting, above, artist Shibata Zeshin balanced the two panels with contrasting scenes of three crows in flight and two egrets at rest, with the black and white forms counterbalancing each other. The white of the egrets was accomplished by cutting out the gold leaf layer to show the white paper beneath. 

Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons, Momoyama period (1573-1615), second half of the 16th century, one of a pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color and gold on gilt paper. 

Across the twelve panels of this pair of folding screens, a profusion of bird and flower motifs celebrates the cyclical progression of the seasons. The leftward movement of the design transitions from springtime flowers to snow-covered pine framing a pair of cranes. 

Japanese artists from the earliest times have depicted birds, often with literary, religious or auspicious connotations drawn from Chinese precedents. Screen and sliding door paintings with bird-and-flower themes, in both ink and color, were created for palaces and temple settings and have remained popular with artists of every school through the Edo period (1615-1868). 

Peacocks and Peonies, Tani Buncho (Japanese, 1763-1840), Edo period (1615-1868), 1820, hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, Charles Stewart Smith Collection, gift of Mrs. Charles Stewart Smith, Charles Stewart Smith Jr. and Howard Caswell Smith, in memory of Charles Stewart Smith, 1914. 

Depicted on a hanging scroll, this pair of peacocks with peonies, representing wealth and worldly power, may have been an official commission by a patron. The artist, Tani Buncho, had learned various Chinese painting styles when in the service of a statesman. Buncho borrowed the pictorial vocabulary of birds and flowers from Japanese painters who had studied the Chinese treatment of these subjects. 

An additional gallery in the exhibition displays an array of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and illustrated books. The Japanese art of ukiyo-e developed in the city of Edo, now Tokyo, during the Edo period and was utilized as a printmaking medium. Images were a collaborative effort of three individuals: an artist who designed and drew the artworks on paper, a carver who carved designs into a series of woodblocks and a printer who applied pigments to the woodblocks and printed them on crafted paper.

On view through July 28 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York.