Die Wachtel hört den Herbst
Quail and Chrysanthemums
A quail kozuka of sentoku, warm and golden. In the middle a quail sits low, its feathers mottled in gold and copper. Gold chrysanthemums stand on either side with dark shakudo leaves, and bent blades of grass curve over them. Small dotted lines run beneath like water. At the far left a little gold butterfly has come to rest.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, describing a painting by Tosa Mitsuoki, notes that chrysanthemums often appear together with quails. The pairing was favoured by Southern Song painters and read as a sign of peace and longevity. Autumn flowers set the season.
The kozuka is unsigned and has no paper. Its season is the same as that of the cricket kozuka by Hamano Noriyuki, also in sentoku, where the grasses are engraved and the insect stands still.
Kozuka. Mumei. Sentoku, takabori-iroe in kin, akagane und shakudo. Uzura ni kiku-zu. Edo-Zeit. Privatsammlung, erworben in Europa.
In the collection
- Type
- Tosogu › Kozuka
- Period
- Edo-Zeit
- Material
- Sentoku
- Motif
- Tiere und VögelPflanzen und Jahreszeiten
