Herons and reeds

SIGNATURE:
Baiitsu Ryo utsusu

SEAL:
Yamamoto Ryo

Two herons perch amid aquatic plants at the water's edge. The reeds, the lotus pod above them, and the single bare branch extending from the left center of the painting suggest autumn. The vegetation is rendered in a full range of ink tones; the artist highlighted the whiteness of the birds with a pigment made of crushed shells (gofun).

Yamamoto Baiitsu was the leading Nanga (literati-style) painter of Owari province, the region surrounding the present-day city of Nagoya in central Japan. At the age of fifty, Baiitsu moved to Kyoto, where he became interested in the natural sciences; as he gained knowledge in this area, he became increasingly precise in detailing his flower-and-bird paintings.