Flock of Cranes [left of a pair]

Ishida Yūtei was the teacher of Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–1795), the famous and influential champion of Western-influenced naturalism in Japan during the 1700s and founder of the Maruyama School. Though trained in the traditional Kano school methods, Yūtei was typical of Kano artists of his time in adopting an eclectic approach to painting. Here, he combined the monumentality and stylization associated with Kano painting with the repetition of a single theme often seen in Rinpa school painting. While Yūtei may have derived the postures of individual cranes from Kano instruction manuals, the idea of combining them all to depict an entire flock presages Ōkyo’s interest in naturalism.