Kakemono Great Tit on a Late-Autumn Tree Trunk

“Banshū”, late autumn, is written in bold characters on the wooden box – and it is exactly this season that the picture captures. A great tit perches on a slanting trunk, its black head turned to the side, its plumage a cool green with a small yellow accent.

Further down, the tree dissolves into flowing areas of ink. Rust-brown leaves and thin blades of grass are dabbed on rather than drawn, and above the bird the paper remains almost empty. This contrast between a closely observed animal and loosely set surroundings is typical of Kyōto painting from the circle of Takeuchi Seihō.

Signature and seal read Tokuda Rinsai, a Nihonga painter of this school. The scroll, painted on paper, dates from the Shōwa period; light foxing bears witness to its age. Gold-coloured brocade with a tendril pattern frames the narrow format, 205 cm tall, and the jikusaki are made of bone. As a seasonal scroll it belongs to the weeks between October and the end of November, when the last leaves fall outside and the colours grow quieter.