National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

Ryoki was a court painter in the early Kochi era (1488-1505) during the Ming period. He was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province and excelled in large scale kachoga (paintings of birds and flowers) featuring bright colors and detailed representation. His style was characterized as a sketch type against the shai type (a representation of not the appearance, but the feelings or spirit of the object) of suibokukachoga (kachoga in black ink) by Rinryo, a court painter of the same period. This is a set of four large paintings depicting flowering plants and birds in seasonal natural landscapes of spring, summer, autumn and winter and constitutes Ryoki's masterpiece. According to the signature and seal, it is clear that he drew them while serving at the Imperial Painting Academy. The exquisite representation and the refined color expression show Ryoki's style at his artistic maturity. In particular, the visually bold design of flowing water in the winter landscape is superb and demonstrates that Ryoki has attained the techniques to abstract flowering plants and birds by arranging them in a decorative manner on a large screen while depicting them realistically. This painting set was handed down to the Shimazu family. It seems that many of Ryoki's paintings were shipped out to Japan from his hometown Ningbo. His large scale kachoga, which were particularly popular among feudal lords as a decoration in their large reception rooms, had a great impact on Japanese art circles after the Muromachi period.