Having seen the spectacle of thousands of cranes taking flight during the winter in the Izumi region of Kagoshima Prefecture, Kayama studied the artistic vocabulary of the Rimpa School to depict his subject. With the sun and moon on either side, the cranes, arranged in groups against a pattern of surging waves, fly in a spiral-like form from the right to the left. The belt of cranes, based on repeated patterns, was clearly inspired by Tawaraya Sotatsu’s Poem Scroll with Underpainting of Cranes (17th century, Kyoto National Museum Collection), but the majestic effect of the space in this work is unique to Kayama.