Birds and Flowers

Birds and Flowers by Wang Liben was once preserved in the collection of the Ashikaga shogunate in Japan. Following the establishment of official relations between Japan and the Ming court of China, the shogunate, particularly under Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), assembled an important collection of Chinese works of art. Many of these treasures were recorded in the Kundaikan Sōchōki, the historical inventory documenting the furnishings and artistic holdings of the shogunal palace. These paintings are among the works associated with that distinguished collection.

Several hundred years later, these paintings came into the collection of Shozo Kawasaki (1836-1912). A prominent entrepreneur of the Meiji period (1868-1912), Baron Shōzō Kawasaki was renowned not only for his achievements in industry and commerce but also for his distinguished art collection. In 1890, he established a private museum, Chōshunkaku, to house and display more than 2,000 works of art, including Chinese calligraphy, paintings, porcelains, and jade carvings. This pair of paintings remained inthe Kawasaki Collection until it was released after an exhibition held in 1936.