Yoshida Yaichirō, the grandfather of Yoshida Kōzō, a nihonga painter and nephew of Hayami Gyoshū, was a successful kimono merchant who also operated the tea garden and shop on a large plot of land in Meguro, which he later developed into a residential area and amassed a fortune as a landowner. Yaichirō also inherited a property of approximately 11,570 square meters between Meguro and Ebisu stations from his grandmother’s family, the Ozawa family, which he made into a garden. At the end of 1913, the artist Imamura Shikō (1880–1916) became a houseguest of Yaichirō, who prohibited him from drinking alcohol and gave him space on the second floor of the main Yoshida residence to paint. On February 2, 1916, Shikō moved to a new house with a painting studio named Sensekiken but he died on February 28 without having spent much time there. Kobayashi Kokei (1883–1957) used the studio for a few years afterwards. Gyoshū, who married Yaichirō’s fourth daughter Iyo in March 1921, lived in a small house beside this studio in the Meguro garden from April 1923 with his wife. In 1931, they moved to a large new one-story, U-shaped house, where the painter spent his last years until his death in 1935.

The Meguro garden was tended by the gardeners from Azabu almost daily, and it was said that all the trees in the garden had flowers that bloomed in one season or another throughout the year and various birds came to sing there. According to Yoshida Kōzō, Gyoshū observed most of the flowers, trees, animals, and birds in his paintings in this garden, to which he was deeply connected, and likely drew inspiration for this painting there as well.

After 1914, Gyoshū emulated the style of Imamura Shikō in his landscape paintings for a few years. However, in 1918, he ventured into a new mode of artistic expression by incorporating shadows on the rugged terrain in Path Outside the Walls of Rinkyū-ji Temple. At the same time, he also began working on paintings of birds and flowers, including chrysanthemums and camellias. Around 1919, he worked on still-life paintings for the first time, breaking into new artistic realms. According to the Hayami Gyoshū Catalogue Raisonné (Vol. 3, Shōwa era), he worked on the painting here from November to December, 1931. In December of this year, he also made several horizontal compositions combining flowers and birds such as Japanese Allspice Blossoms and Chickadee and Ripe Persimmons, Small Bird. The following year he focused solely on flowers in Wild Camellias. A comparison of White Camellias and Chickadees and Wild Camellias, which date to around the same period reveals that Wild Camellias superbly depicts the thin but sturdy branches and the thin petals fluttering in the wine, highlighting the beauty of the flowers, leaves, and branches, while White Camellias and Chickadees emphasizes the sublime patterns of the feathers of the birds in close interaction, as Gyoshū described in his 1932 journal entry, “the structure of the birds’ feathers is truly skillfully unified and beautiful.” The role of camillia seemingly enhance the seasonal ambience and feeling during the particular moment.

The title of this painting in this catalog is based on the inscription on the storage box by Kobayashi Kokei. The above-mentioned Hayami Gyoshū Catalogue Raisonné also identifies this work with the same Japanese title. The catalog published for the exhibition Masterworks by Hishida Shunsō, Imamura Shikō, and Hayami Gyoshū, held from January 28 to February 9, 1958 at the Mitsukoshi Department Store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, listed this painting as Chickadees and Sasanquas.

Hayami Gyoshu (nihonga painter; 1894–1935)
Nihonga painter from Tokyo. Gyoshu studied at Matsumoto Fuko’s private painting school Anagado Gajuku, and was selected for the Tatsumi-gakai and Ugo-kai art associations. Besides being active in a number of art groups, such as Koji-kai and Sekiyo-kai, he also became an associate member of the Inten exhibition. Gyoshu was skilled at infusing modernity into the decorative nihonga genre. He was awarded honorary medals by the governments of Italy and Germany.