Introduction

A hawk curls its claw into a circle—a likeness of the setting sun in this folding screen, which is one of the nearly forty paintings from NMAA’s collections included in the exhibition Feathered Ink (August 27, 2022‒January 29, 2023). The painter, Soga Nichokuan, specialized in painting birds of prey. In the words of exhibit curator Kit Brooks, “Depicting a variety of bird species in naturalistic or paradisiacal environments offers artists the opportunity to show off their skills by using a range of brushwork techniques to represent different feather types and the textures of plumage and foliage.”

As Brooks explains, “Black sumi ink is a highly versatile pigment with a small, regular particle size. This means it can be mixed and graded with a high degree of precision and used to create specific effects. Adding colors can provide further layers of symbolic meaning and decorative effect.”

One of the techniques used by painters to depict birds is shasei, which involves observing living subjects. Such careful looking is also a cornerstone of biology, a science that gathers knowledge about the natural world in order to study life. The scientific methods of biology include careful observation, but they also require imagination and creativity. Seen in this light, we can imagine these bird paintings as a kind of scientific record, based on artists’ careful scrutiny of multiple species of birds and informed by their artistry.