Eagle in flight against a snowy sky

Japanese Kachō-e ‘bird-and-flower pictures’ offered print lovers a charming antidote to the melodrama of kabuki-e. Early kachō-e drew on Chinese conventions and "aimed to capture the spirit of nature in connection with the seasons, poetic allusions, or religious values". Bird images often conveyed symbolic meanings – tsuru, the crane, for example, was associated with longevity. By the 20th century, the simpler pleasures of enjoying intimate views of nature had somewhat supplanted these metaphoric associations.
Ohara Shōson (1877-1945), the most celebrated of shin-hanga ('new print') kachō-e artists, is reputed to have designed over 450 bird compositions. Under the name Koson, he had trained in Nihonga Japanese-style painting, specialising in the naturalistic modes of the Maruyama-Shijō school. He found early employment designing senso-e triptychs of the Russo-Japanese War. Subsequently, however, he specialised in intimate shin-hanga views of birds in their natural settings.

Delicate watercolour washes clearly distinguish Shōson’s naturalist style from idioms of contemporary kachō-e designers, and account for his popularity in Japan and in the West. That delicacy challenged the skills of his craftsmen, and Shōson found favour with the best. Works published by Akiyama Buemon (Kokkeidō) and Matsuki Heikichi (Daikokuya) and signed Koson were "principally destined for the foreign market". He changed his name to Shōson from 1912, and used it from around 1923 in his work with the pre-eminent shin-hanga publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō. All five bird prints currently in Te Papa's collection are signed and sealed Shōson, and also bear Watanabe’s small circular seal.

Most of Shōson’s works are distinguished by their quiet understatement. Some, however, were more dramatic. The dynamic, twisting form of his view of a golden eagle plunging downward through the sky is accentuated by the streaking lines of the sweeping sheet of snow behind. The effect was generated by the linear motion of the printer’s baren (pad) as he burnished the paper over the woodblock. The work draws on earlier metaphoric associations. The majestic washi or eagle was associated with keen endeavour and success. Together with the matsu (pine), occupying the bottom left of the print forming a quintessentially Japanese pictorial structure, it conveyed notions of longevity – both common New Year sentiments.

Sources:

David Bell, 'A new vision: modern Japanese prints from the Heriot collection', Tuhinga, 31 (2020), forthcoming.

A. Newland, J. Perrée and R. Schaap, Cows, cranes & camellias: the natural world of Ohara Koson 1877-1945 (Leiden, 2001).

Dr Mark Stocker  Curator, Historical International Art    May 2019