Itō Jakūchu, Chrysanthemum Tree By Stream With Rocks

Chrysanthemum Tree With Rocks is a color painting from Jakūshu's Colorful Realm of Living Beings series, which he completed over the course of ten years. After completing the series, he donated the paintings to the Shōkokuji Temple. Immediately following this donation, Jakūchu's brother's funeral rites and the memorial for the 33rd anniversary of their father's death was celebrated before the series. The series primarily focused on bird and flower paintings; a genre that had been adapted from Chinese painting schools. Jakūchu's interpretation of the genre was revolutionary for his close attention to detail, and because he modeled his images off of plants and animals he observed in nature. While Jakūchu often eschewed imagery associated with particularly high-class contexts, his close observation reveals a reverence for the life and beauty of plants and animals that he encountered every day. It is through this celebration of everyday life that Jakūchu painted a memorial for his family members, and reasserted his Buddhist faith.

Image credited to The Museum of the Imperial Collections