Japanese - Tsuka with Autumn Flowers, Plum Blossoms and Nightingale - Walters 5112483B - Mark A

The kashira depicts a nightingale on a flowering plum tree branch with its beak open in song. The subject is a reference to a poem by the Chinese poet Hakurakuten (Ch. Bai Juyi [Po Chü-i]) (772-847). In the poem, the owner of a plum tree refuses to cut off a flowering branch because it will leave the nightingale without a place to perch. Autumn flowers are incised on the body of the tsuka. This is part of a mounted set.