叭々鳥図屏風|Mynah Birds

Unidentified artist

early 17th century · Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on paper · Asian Art

A myriad of mynah birds set against the gold and blue of a shoreline is frozen in a moment in time. Although not native to Japan, within East Asian literary tradition mynah birds serve as emblems of honesty, independent thinking, and even resistance to unjust authority. Whether this work can be interpreted as political protest is impossible to know, but the unusual iconography, focusing on mynah birds to the exclusion of any other creature or even landscape elements, lends itself to such an interpretation. It also dates to an era when Japanese artists were reformulating Chinese modes of ink painting to create their own distinct pictures.

Artist

Unidentified artist

Date

early 17th century

Medium

Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Purchase, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Foundation and Anonymous Gifts, 2013