Keibun's Five Still Lives may be regarded as a compendium documenting the artist's ability to achieve a remarkable graphic distillate of the features of the natural world.

The scroll of Chestnuts is exemplary in generating for the viewer much of the memory of the actual subject. No table or other surface is depicted, no background is delineated. Only the little brown and hard nuts are given to us for contemplation. There is an undeniable sense of the generic chestnut on encountering the image, but this is crafted not by delineating a pared-down icon but rather (and perhaps somewhat surprisingly) through the focused presentation of but a few particular chestnuts. Though it may not be profitable to dwell on the mechanics of Keibun's scroll for ultimate aesthetic appreciation, it should be noted that his magic is often very much the result of a triumph of technique. The accomplishment is precisely due to the control of wash intensity as opposed to descriptive delineation.

One sees this same superb transition in tone and or intensity in single brushstrokes in two other of Keibun's scrolls: the Leaf and the Dandelion. Both studies assure us of their master's command of the medium. Yet as with so many great artists whose graphic technique is on the highest plane (one thinks immediately of Hokusai, Turner, Goya, and Rembrandt as examples), the final image is projected as almost independent of the craft that produced it.