Wagtails, early 16th century, Kenk? Sh?kei, Japanese, active before 1478¡Vca. 1523, 15 1/16 ¡Ñ 22 3/4 in. (38.26 ¡Ñ 57.79 cm) (image)47 3/4 ¡Ñ 28 5/8 in. (121.29 ¡Ñ 72.71 cm) (mount, without roller), Ink on paper, Japan, 16th century, Kenk? Sh?kei was both a Zen priest and a highly skilled ink painter who spent most of his career at the major Zen monastery Kench?ji in the city of Kamakura. Here he depicted a pair of wagtails on branches in strikingly contrasting poses. One stares down to the right as if aiming at some prey, while the other stands straight with a glance to the left. Sh?kei painted his birds using a rapid brush technique called 'boneless' (that is, without outlines), a method seen as particularly suitable for Zen themes. This combination of compositional device and technique suggests that these wagtails once flanked a third painting of a Zen deity or patriarch as part of a devotional triptych. Pictures of birds or flowers often served this purpose in Zen painting. But Sh?kei¡¦s original format seems to have been radically transformed by some later owner. Not only is the central painting missing but the vertical seams on each painting suggest that a previous owner cut up the original paintings to create two large horizontal compositions. The new format was less suitable for a Zen temple but fit the wide display alcove typical of grand residences. This type of conversion of a once sacred image to a secular one was not uncommon in Japan after the 1500s.