A lone male peacock
stands looking back at his large raised tail. Ōkyo magnificently
captured every detail from the roundness and volume of the peacock’s
body, the craggy texture of the rocks, and the thin, soft petals of
the peonies. He created a brilliantly decorative scene through the
vibrant feathers of the peacock, the large blossoming peonies that
surround the majestic bird, and the pale blue Chinese scholar’s
rock.
Katsu Jagyoku was a
painter in Osaka during the mid-Edo period and excelled at rendering
carps. A lone carp swims below the surface of a small river, flanked
by embankments on the right and left, as five cherry blossom petals
float on by. The carp looks directly at the petals and twists its
body as if it is about to swallow the flowers. The strong wind
sweeping from left to right causes the branches of the willow over
the carp to bend and the water’s surface to ripple.
