Pheasants over a Mountain Stream / Eagle, White Heron and Small Birds in a Ravine 

This pair of hanging scrolls depicts contrasting scenes of a valley in spring and autumn. In the right scroll, a pair of pheasants seems to be relaxing under mountain azaleas and wisterias. The left scroll shows an egret fleeing through the autumnal foliage after being attacked by a sharp-eyed hawk. Ikegami Shuho studied the traditional painting techniques of the Kano school, the source of whose aesthetic can be traced back to the magnificent wall paintings that decorated castles and residences during the Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1568–1600), when the Kano school flourished. This can be seen in his rich use of verdigris and ultramarine pigments, and also in the dynamic arrangement of the hawk and pheasant at intersecting angles. Ishinhakko is a well-established traditional painting motif in which a small bird is shown cowering before a hawk, the king of birds. It symbolizes the power of the ruler. In Japan from the Meiji Era (1868–1912) to the prewar period, the motif was used frequently to depict the prestige of the Emperor.
(UCHIYAMA Junko)