Geese and Reeds [left of a pair]

This pair of hanging scrolls juxtaposes birds associated with spring and autumn: at right a bulbul on a plum tree in full bloom (spring) and at left a family of wild geese on a beach near drying reeds (autumn). The bulbul and one of the geese appear to call out to one another, an indication that these hanging scrolls once flanked a central devotional image of a Buddhist deity or patriarch. Although each painting is impressed with the seals of the second-generation Kano leader Motonobu (1476–1559), they were probably painted by a Kano painter active a generation or two after the master’s death and working in his style. The anonymous painter may even have used Motonobu’s sketches as a reference. Generations of Kano painters looked to the works of earlier painters, especially Motonobu, as models for their own paintings.