Kakemono Crested Myna on a Leafy Branch

A crested myna on a leafy branch, its head bent far down and its wings folded – an unusually lively pose for a motif that in Japanese painting is otherwise mostly shown perched calmly upright.

The hanging scroll bears the signature and seal of Watanabe Shoka. The plumage is built up with broad, energetic brushstrokes, while the branch above it is rendered in delicate, almost translucent lines – a deliberate contrast between the powerfully rendered bird and the still vegetation. The crested myna (hakkachō), with its pale beak and small tuft of feathers at the base of the bill, was a popular subject of Chinese-influenced kachō (bird-and-flower) painting, and it has been treated by numerous painting schools as an independent, often even humorous motif.

The work is delivered including a wooden box, which serves to protect and properly store the hanging scroll.