Page 172 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

portrait of Kanetaka before 1479, presum- contemporary China. Sesshu, however, 97 Flowers and Birds of the Four
ably when the artist visited the warrior's dramatized spatial expression in terms of Seasons
domain during his peripatetic years after its lateral expansion in the monumental Kano Motonobu (1476-1559)
he returned from Ming China in 1469. Ac- screens. For example, the corner mass set of four hanging scrolls; ink and
cording to Masuda family tradition, contrasts with the void at the center, an slight color on paper
Sesshü presented these screens to the example of a compositional formula he in- each h. 177.5 x w. 118.0 (697/8 x 46 Vz)
family when Kanetaka's grandson Mune- herited from his mentor Shübun (fl. c. Muromachi period, 1543
kane (fl. 1512-1544) was installed as the ter- 1420-^ 1461), and which would be carried
ritorial steward in 1483. on by Kano Masanobu (1434—1530) and his Reiun'in, Kyoto
These screens, which show Sesshü's sonMotonobu(i47Ó-i559). YS Important Cultural Property
characteristic handling of solid forms and
These four hanging scrolls, which com-
space in a monumental format, are consis- pose a set, were originally mounted on
tent with the style of his Landscape of the sliding doors. They were part of a series,
four seasons (Tokyo National Museum), depicting flowers and birds of the four sea-
painted while he was in China between sons, which decorated the central cham-
1467 and 1469. The descriptive, dynamic
ber (shitchu) of the abbot's residential
forms of the pine tree and its branches as quarters (hdjd) of Reiun'in in Kyoto. The
well as the plum branches find parallels in
residential section of a Muromachi-period
cat. 88, made in 1501. The style also shares
Zen temple was usually designed on a rec-
features with works by Ming Academic tangular grid, facing a garden to the south,
painters such as Lü Ji (fl. c. 1497 and later), and divided into six rooms: the shitchu,
indicating that Sesshü closely observed the largest and most formal room, in the
the style of bird-and-flower paintings in

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