Flowering plants and fruits of the four seasons

SIGNATURE:
Watanabe Shiko (on both screens)

SEAL:
Shiko no in (on both screens)

This pair of screens depicts a landscape with streams, waterfall, trees, land masses, and other plants against a sumptuous gold background. In the right screen appear flowering azaleas, bamboo grasses, and a young bamboo, all suggesting spring and summer. In the left screen are a maple tree, a pomegranate tree bearing fully ripe fruit, a bellflower, and other plants that suggest fall and winter. Watanabe Shiko was a noted painter of the Rinpa school, which is known for its refined decorative style. Shiko also seems to have been a "town painter," working for a privately owned painting studio that produced hanging scrolls and folding screens. Shiko mastered techniques of various schools to meet the demands of clients. This pair of screens reveals his indebtedness to the professional painting styles of the Kano and Rinpa schools in his use of the gold and strong lines characteristic of the Kano and of the brilliant color schemes and stylized natural elements of the Rinpa.