Nothing in nature does "look at me" quite like a peacock, and this one runs the full drop of the shirt to prove it — a body of iridescent blue and green giving way to that impossible train of hundred-eyed feathers. But there's more to the bird than swagger. In the Buddhist tradition the peacock is a creature of protection and purification: it was believed to feed on the poisonous — venomous snakes, thorns, toxic plants — and turn all that danger into the shimmering glory of its plumage. From that belief grew Kujaku Myōō, the Peacock Wisdom King, a deity ridden on a peacock's back and invoked to swallow poison, sickness and disaster. So for all its vanity, this is really a bird that eats venom and gives back beauty — which is about the best trick going.

This is a kujaku (孔雀, peacock), from the hanging scroll Kujaku kakizu (孔雀花卉図, Peacock and flowers) c1840.

Nagasawa Roshū (長澤蘆洲, 1767-1847)