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

Since there is no signature or seal on the scroll, the artist of this painting is unknown. The poetry above the painting, written by the priest Zuikei Shuhô (1392-1473), tells us that it was painted sometime before 1473 (Bunmei 5).
The painting depicts a sasanqua tree lightly covered in snow with a little bird on its branch. The poet says that the sasanqua reminds him of winter, and the little bird the advent of spring. Paintings of sasanqua have a long history. In China they appeared during the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) at the latest, and in Japan, according to some documents, in the Nanbokuchô-period (1333-92). This work was probably modeled after Chinese Imperial Academy-style flower-and-bird paintings imported to Japan. It is one of the earliest example of colored flower-and-bird paintings in Japan.