Tosa Mitsunari (1646–1710) | Quail, millet and full moon | Edo period, early 18th century

In this pair of six-fold screens, quail are depicted by millet and in flight before a full moon. The composition is not abundant with plants and birds: instead, the quail are abstracted from their naturalistic landscape setting and carefully arranged across the twelve panels to keep most of the surface free of motifs and therefore entirely gold. The unrestrained use of gold-leaf has its legacy in the preceding Momoyama period (1573-1615), which was dominated by civil war and the flamboyant taste of great warlords in the decoration of their castle interiors. Beginning in the late 1610s through the 1640s, decorative bird-and-flower paintings with solid gold-leaf backgrounds were created in great number; the lyricism of empty space indicative of a novel aesthetic taking root in the early Edo period (1615-1868).

Tosa Mitsunari was the son-in-law of Tosa Mitsuoki (1617-1710), one of the legendary sanpitsu, or three brushes of the Tosa painting studio based in Kyoto. Tosa school artists specialised in courtly themes of Japanese origin, exercised with a meticulous, restrained and refined style. The school was mainly hereditary and had been associated with the Kyoto Imperial Palace in the early to mid-Muromachi period (1392-1573), both as painters and later purveyors of the arts to the imperial court. Mitsuoki was renowned for his intricate and detailed paintings of quail. Although, the Tosa school had fallen out of favour with the court due to the rise of the rival Kano school, Mitsuoki successfully regained the position of Chief Artist at the Painting Bureau of the Imperial Court (Edokoro azukari) in Kyoto. In 1681, he handed down his position to his successor Mitsunari.

The subject matter here is overtly auspicious: in China, quail (an) and millet (sui) were often paired together to remind viewers of the saying suisui ping’an, or ‘May you have peace year after year!’. Despite the humble nature of the grain, millet shafts heavy under their own weight also has associations with wealth and prosperity. Here, the dark clouds partially veiling the moon have been rendered in a watery ink wash. The plumage of the quail is rendered in exacting detail. Each bird is expressive, their grouping entirely rhythmic: some appear to be squabbling among the grasses, gazing face on with directness or looking away and partly obscured. The season is autumn, codified by the full moon and millet ready for harvest.