Puppies, Sparrows, and Chrysanthemums

These paintings were originally mounted as sliding doors (fusuma) used inside a building. The circular areas on the paintings’ paper surfaces are traces of the former positions of the door pulls (hikite). A flock of sparrows gathers on a trellis supporting flowering chrysanthemum. Below is a litter of puppies, some cavorting, others napping. The tender story created by the curious puppy peering up and tilting its head to listen to the bird’s insistent call (in the leftmost part of the composition) is characteristic of Nagasawa Rosetsu’s paintings, which often use animals to illustrate the human condition.