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

Pictures of lotus ponds and waterfowl seems to have been painted actively after the Five Dynasties, both in colors and India ink, in places such as Biling (Changzhou) in Chiang-nan in China. This painting carries the artist's seal of Gu De-qian of the Nan (Southern) Tang Dynasty in Five Dynasties, but is in fact a representative color work at the end of the Southern Song dynasty. The "flow of time" is expressed by the lotus flower, from bulb to blossom and then falling of blossom. Previously owned by the Mitsui clan.