Metamorphosis of form and meaning: Ink bird-and-flower screens in Muromachi Japan

This study conceptualizes the production of ink bird-and-flower screens in Muromachi Japan by examining a group of screen-format works in the Muqi mode by Noami (1396--1471) and painters of the Sesshu and early Kano schools. Inextricably interwoven with this production process was the formulation of meanings, associated with iconography, compositional rhetoric, and social function, inherent in bird-and-flower screens.;Muromachi period (1333--1573) ink bird-and-flower screens were produced in the context of the reception of works in the Muqi mode, which constitutes paintings attributed to the Southern Song painter Muqi (?--1272--1294) as well as the subsequent emulation of these works by Chinese and Japanese painters. Noami's 1469 Ink Bird-and-flower Screens survives as the earliest example of ink monochrome bird-and-flower screens and embodies his profound understanding of works attributed to Muqi. Although only few Sesshu-school bird-and-flower screens in the Muqi mode survive, it is conceivable that Sesshu (1420--1506?) and his immediate followers would have produced such works in pursuit of stylistic diversity. Kano Motonobu (1476--1559) and Kano Shoei (1519--1592) executed their mature ink monochrome bird-and-flower works at the Reiun'in and Jukoin respectively. The pictorial vocabulary these painters possessed, their individual understanding of the models, and motivations for painting in their given social circumstances yielded works that share certain stylistic traits that can be categorized as the Muqi mode and yet vary in the use of brushwork styles and compositional schemes. The examination of these works collectively reveals not only the stylistic range of the Muqi mode, but the dynamic interactions between different painting formats and schools.;The consumption of ink bird-and-flower screens in the Muromachi period, either viewing or utilizing the screens, realized their iconographical and social significance. A case study in the dissertation explores the evolving iconography of the egret, a frequently depicted motif in bird-and-flower screens, and demonstrates the formation and transformation of iconographies in a cross-cultural milieu. A comparative discussion of linked-verse poetry and screens of miscellaneous birds and flowers helps better elucidate the screens' compositional rhetoric. The screens' usages in childbirth, deathbed, and gift exchanges reveal the social conditions of the actualization of their pragmatic significance.