Peafowl and Phoenixes

Phoenixes are fantastical birds said to inhabit paulownia trees and eat bamboo, and to celebrate virtuous rulers. Peafowl are birds that amuse themselves in the lake of the Buddha Amida’s Pure Land, a paradise where many once hoped to find themselves after death. Both birds appeared on Japanese textiles or paintings in the 1500s and 1600s, used in official ceremonies centered around emperors.

A pair of two horizontal, six-paneled screens feature gilded backgrounds across which birds walk and flap their wings in front of green forest shrubbery. The upper screen features two phoenixes. The lower screen features a peafowl in the shrubbery and a peacock just outside, flapping its wings and looking back at the peafowl. Floral patterns rim both screens.

Peafowl and Phoenixes

late 1500s

Tosa Mitsuyoshi

(Japanese, 1539–1613)

Japan, Momoyama period (1573–1615)

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