Ohara Koson (小原古邨) / Shōson (祥邨) (artist 1877 – 1945)
Jungle crow or hashibutogarasu (嘴太鴉) on cherry branch
ca 1910
6.75 in x 14.25 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Koson (古邨)
National Museum of Asian Art
Rijksmuseum "A jungle crow (Corvus macrorhynchos) sits on flowering cherry branch on a full moonlit evening. The carrion crow is native to Japan, and according to folk belief it was thought to be a messenger of the gods. At Shinto shrines such as the Atsuta shrine in Nagoya and the Taga shrine in Shiga prefedture ceremonies are held in which crows are given offerings of rice cakes. Carrion crows were one of Koson's favourite subjects: a great number of prints, over thirty images and large square painting on silk of this bird are known by him. Surprisingly, a substantial number of the paintings are framed in Japanese wooden frames and not mounted as hanging scrolls (kakemono), which suggests that they were made for export. The original painting for this design is known."
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This print in the Lyon Collection is missing the personal, round seal of Koson found on the prints in the National Museum of Asian Art and in the Rijksmuseum.
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Illustrated:
1) in color with a bluish background in Crows, Cranes and Camellias: the Natural World of Ohara Koson 1877-1945 by Amy Reigle Newland, Jan Perrée and Robert Schaap, Hotei Publishing, 2001, page 170, K5.3 This is the second state of this design, without the publisher's seal, but it is ascribed to Daikokuya (Matsui Heikichi), page 71.
2) in black and white in 'The Reception of Ohara Koson’s kachōga in North America in the 1930s' (小原古邨の花鳥版画について : 1930年代のアメリカにおける受容を中心に), by Ihara Rieko (庵原理絵子), #9.
3) in a black and white reproduction in Catalogue of the Collection of Japanese Prints Part V - The Age of Yoshitoshi, Rijksprentkabinet/Rijksmuseum, 1990, no. 143, p. 102.
kachō-e (bird and flower picture - 花鳥絵) (genre)