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Birds and Beasts in Japanese Art

January 31, 2004 - July 18, 2004

Museum: Freer Gallery of Art

Location: Galleries 6 & 7

This exhibition highlights the Freer Gallery's diverse and visually exciting collection of birds and animals in a variety of media (including scrolls, albums, paintings, screens, lacquer boxes, and bronze mirrors) that display an extraordinary range of styles from realistic renderings of the Maruyama-Shijo school to the dynamic brushwork of Edo period artists Jakuchu and Buson. Chinese animal subjects -- such as gibbons, monkeys, and tigers -- were especially popular during the Edo period (1615-1868) when exotic animals were often transported from abroad for display in Japan.