Cleveland Museum of Art

Birds in a Tree

Date

c. 1700–1868

Medium

hanging scroll; silk gauze brocaded with gold and silk

Culture

Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This scene of two Chinese pheasants with a flowering plum tree (a sign of the arrival of spring in Japan) is not painted. All the lines and surfaces are created by colored threads carefully stitched together into the silk. Consequently, the surface appears quite different from paintings on paper.

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