Heron on a Rock [right of a triptych of Scholar with Heron and Myna]

Japanese hanging scrolls often come in groups of three: a central figure painting flanked by birds, landscapes, or complementary figures. Kusumi Morikage made this triptych’s central figure a Chinese scholar whose servant boy holds a pole to display a hanging scroll painting of bamboo. Though unidentified, the scholar is likely Su Dongpo (1037–1101), a famous Chinese statesman, poet, and painter. Bird-and-flower paintings in an abbreviated, quasi-Chinese style complement this portrait of an ancient Chinese literary hero. Although Kusumi Morikage never took the Kano name, he was a top student in the studio of Tan’yū (1602–1674), the Kano house’s leader, whose niece Morikage married. Their extraordinarily talented daughter, Kiyohara Yukinobu (1643–1682), was among the most prominent female painters in early modern Japan.