Duck 1877 - 1897

Watanabe Seitei painted this duck using ink and color on silk. In Japanese art, birds often carry symbolic weight, embodying freedom, transition, and the changing seasons. Consider how the duck, poised between water and air, mirrors the human soul's own journey between earthly and spiritual realms. This motif echoes in ancient Egyptian art, where birds represented the soul's flight after death, and in classical Greek imagery, where birds were messengers of the gods, linking the mortal and divine. Seitei's duck engages us on a subconscious level, tapping into our collective memories of nature's cycles. The duck's image is not static; it evolves. It resurfaces in various forms throughout history, from religious symbols to emblems of personal transformation, constantly adapting and reflecting our ever-changing understanding of life and death.