Colorful Realm of Living Beings
動植綵絵
A set of thirty paintings by Ito Jakuchu, filled with richly coloured animals and plants.
01About
Colorful Realm of Living Beings is a set of thirty paintings by Ito Jakuchu, a Kyoto painter of the eighteenth century, and it was designated a National Treasure of Japan in 2021. It is not one picture but thirty that belong together. Each shows animals or plants, so side by side you can compare how a bird, a flower, or a background is handled from one painting to the next. The Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties has published high-resolution images and colour-material analyses of all thirty, which helps when you want to study the details.
02In the gallery
Move close enough to follow a feather, a leaf, or a petal, then step back and see how it works within the whole painting.
Wall label terms in Japanese
- 花鳥画
- Bird-and-flower painting
03Notes
Colorful Realm of Living Beings is thirty paintings of animals and plants that together form one work.
Where do you find the detail that holds your attention longest?