Twelve Pictures of the Months: 11. The November Picture | Yoshimura Kokei 吉村孝敬 | 1769-1836

In November, at the end of autumn, the common plover (chidori) is considered the "bird of the season"; its call is interpreted as plaintive. The depiction of the pair is particularly touching. As is often the case in classical art, the two birds are shown in a conversational pose – usually a female and a male. No distinction between the sexes is discernible, but the communicative element between the two is strong.

The gently melancholy mood towards the end of the year (and already at the transition to winter) is reflected in the solitary, towering reeds and the shallow water in which the two shorebirds wander aimlessly. The feeling that the most beautiful time of the year, the climatically pleasant and colorful autumn, is now coming to an end is often depicted in poetry using plovers ( chidori as kigo for late autumn).

The melancholy is further underscored by the fact that the painter has filled the top and bottom borders with nothing but uninterpretable dots. Does this express a kind of silence?