Two sparrows and a maple (one of a pair of hanging scrolls)

This pair of hanging scrolls represents the two seasons that many Japanese people love best: spring and autumn. At the right is a spring scene of a flowering cherry branch with two sparrows. At the left are two sparrows and maple branches with red autumn leaves.

Both paintings are in a tall and extremely narrow format that would be challenging to any painter. To capture the essence of nature in these spaces, Shungaku created a composition whose edges cut off the tree branches, leaving only their tips in the image. This enabled him to depict the leaves and tiny birds as if seen through binoculars.

Shungaku was born and worked in Osaka, where he studied under Fukuhara Gogaku (1730–1799), a master of the literati (scholarly) painting school.