Once the front and back of a partitioning screen, these paintings have been remounted as a pair of two-fold screens. The statement designating them as an important cultural property tells us they were remounted in 1957, but not what their original format was. Some argue that they were earlier mounted on folding screens or sliding doors.
On the right-hand screen, we see a peacock, its feathers spread and its long, slender legs outstretched. A tree trunk frames the splendid feathers. The bent branch with white plum blossoms stretches towards the peahen. The direction in which she is walking takes our eyes back to the peacock, the center of the composition. On the left-hand screen, our eyes note how the hollyhocks shoot up vertically. The contrasting red, white, and green color fields create a striking graphic effect, quite distinct from the carefully painted peacock and peahen.
Deterioration on the right-hand screen has made the signature, apart from “Hokkyo,” illegible. On the left-hand screen, the signature “Hokkyo Korin” and the “Masatoki” seal can be read. Korin is Ogata Korin, famed for the Irises (Nezu Museum) and Red and White Plum Blossom (MOA Museum of Art) folding screens, both National Treasures. Korin worked in both Kyoto and Edo in the mid-Edo period; his younger brother Kenzan (1663-1743) was also famous, for ceramics. “Masatoki” is a name Korin is thought to have used late in life. Since he died at 59 in 1716, he is thought to have produced this work in his mid fifties.