Birds, flowers of the seasons, and civet cats
date: label: Date
content: 16th century
label: Period
content: Muromachi or Momoyama period
notes: label: Label
content: Japanese landscape screens often represent a sequence of four seasons from right to left, beginning with spring and ending with winter. This Japanese convention for representing a temporal sequence of seasons in an apparently unified spatial setting became established in large-format Japanese paintings by the late fifteenth century. While Japanese painters often incorporated birds and flowers-subjects adapted from Chinese art collected in Japan from the thirteenth century onward-into seasonal landscape painting, this pair of screens is somewhat unusual in its inclusion of exotic musk (civet) cats, known in Japanese as jakoneko.
label: Provenance
content: To 1901
label: Provenance
content: Kano Oshima, New York to 1901 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1901 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Kano Oshima in 1901 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Original
label: Provenance
content: Screens Reserved List, R. 4, pg. 1, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Birds and Beasts in Japanese Art (January 31 to July 18, 2004)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Kano Oshima (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: Japan
topic: label: Topic
content: flower
label: Topic
content: Muromachi period (1333 - 1573)
label: Topic
content: Momoyama period (1573 - 1615)
label: Topic
content: Japan
label: Topic
content: civet cat
label: Topic
content: Japanese Art
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1901.178-179
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Ink, color, and imitation gold on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (.178): 168.3 x 381.4 cm (66 1/4 x 150 3/16 in)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (.179): 168.1 x 381.3 cm (66 3/16 x 150 1/8 in)