Kakemono Peony with Calligraphy

A delicately pink-speckled peony in full bloom, accompanied by a column of calligraphy at the left edge of the picture – a union of painting and writing, as it was valued in the literati pictorial tradition. The petals are built up in fine, glazing layers of color, creating a soft, almost translucent impression, while the leaf veins of the surrounding leaves are rendered in clearer lines. The peony has long been regarded in Japan and China as the "queen of flowers" and stands for wealth, honor, and prosperity, a motif that was often accompanied by a fitting literary comment.

The interplay of image and script lends this hanging scroll an additional layer of meaning and makes it a work that can be viewed both as painting and as calligraphy.