Flying Geese and Rocky Cliff

"Maruyama Ōkyo was born to a farming family in current Kameoka City, Kyoto Prefecture. Ōkyo moved to Kyoto in his teens to work at a glass shop, and learned painting from a painter erived from the Kano school. This work is said to have been kept at Enman-in temple in Otsu, Shiga prefecture. Ōkyo, who got to know Enman-in’s head monk, Yujo (1723-1773), around 1765, two years before the scroll was painted, taught Yujo painting and made various pictures at his request. Ōkyo painted works based on sketching to faithfully reproduce objects he saw himself. Trying to land on the water surface with spray generated by the wind, three wild geese were depicted from different angles thanks to Ōkyo’s practice of sketching. The one on the left spreads its wings forward and is about to land on water, while the upper wild goose flies straight downward as if crashing. Depicted from the side is the bird on the verge of diving from the rock entwined with reddish ivy. Ōkyo depicted this work when he was 35 years old."