This design of a peacock and peahen with a tree peony is based on a painting on silk by Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–95) dated 1771. The peacock, a perennially popular subject with embroiderers, is representative of spring, particularly in combination with the peahen and tree peony. A variety of stitches have been used for the embroidery, including long sections of couched twisted thread. The panel was made by the firm Takashimaya, which was established in Kyoto in 1831 by Iida Shinshichi I (1803–74) as a shop dealing in second-hand clothes. The company began to produce decorative silk goods and fukusa (traditional embroidered wrapping cloths for lacquer boxes) from the 1870s. They achieved success at national exhibitions held in Kyoto and Tokyo, eventually becoming suppliers to the Imperial Household Agency. A positive reception at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle and the Chicago World Fair in 1893 contributed to the success of the firm and the rise of an overseas market.

The panel was presented in its dark wood frame as a gift to King George V in 1935, presumably for the Silver Jubilee on 6 May. The following year, after his death, it was lent by King Edward VIII for an exhibition of Silver Jubilee and other gifts held at Stafford Public Library, Art Gallery and Museum.

Text adapted from Japan: Courts and Culture (2020)