Flowers of the Four Seasons

The seasons in this virtual garden progress from right to left: in the right-most panels of the right screen, springtime yellow kerria roses grow above young pines, violets, and bracken shoots; a notional path then leads to butterflies fluttering above magnificent summer peonies. In the left screen, autumnal chrysanthemums transition to wintry nandina with scarlet berries, white narcissus, and bamboo grass. Painted gardens such as this—the result of the cross-fertilization of imported Chinese and Korean paintings with classical Japanese themes at a moment when Kyoto’s elite were enthusiastically landscaping their own physical gardens— were a specialty of the I’nen Studio of Tawaraya Sōtatsu (active c. 1600–1640). This example is unique for its inclusion of insects with the luxuriant flora.