Autumn Millet and Small Birds

Kano Sanraku

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

These screens celebrate the rich harvest of autumn. The ripening millet attracts small birds—sparrows, buntings, and titmice—clamoring to satisfy their appetites. In contrast to the natural motifs, objects such as the bamboo fences, the net to capture small birds, and the scarecrow rattles hanging from ropes may evoke in the viewer’s imagination a garden or farm in the autumn. Although the details are rendered realistically, the scene is composed of images that have a long history as traditional subject matter: grain and sparrows, millet and quail, and autumn grasses. These motifs appear repeatedly in pottery, lacquers, and metalwork, as well as in painting. To Japanese viewers of the past, these seemingly decorative motifs would have brought to mind a deeply ingrained set of associations with poetry, some of which went beyond the merely visual. The motif of quails, for example, would have reminded them immediately of the poetic image of a quail’s shrill cry, which traditionally conveyed a sense of autumnal isolation.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art