Birds on a PlumTree

Two long-tailed birds look upward as if at something beyond the picture plane; the branches of blossoming plum on which they are balanced are entwined with the flowers and leaves of a red camellia— a combination that represents the spring season. This painting, with its colorful blend of Chinese- and Western-inspired realism, displays the technical skill of Kishi Ganku, who studied the painting styles of the academic Kano school, the Chinese artist Shen Nanpin (fl. 1725–80), who had lived for several years in the Japanese port city of Nagasaki, and the Western naturalism-influenced Maruyama-Shijō school. Ganku, who is best known for his many paintings of tigers, produced a number of works in the meticulous and detailed technique typical of the followers of Shen Nanpin, although he developed a rougher, more energetic style in his later years.

Although Ganku—who held courtly and official governmental positions in the early years of the nineteenth century—absorbed the painting styles of various schools, he chose to found the Kishi school to perpetuate his combination of Japanese, Chinese, and Western elements.