Three Owls on a Branch
Artist: Beishu (Japanese)
Date: Meiji Era (1868-1912)
Dimensions:
13 1/8 × 9 1/4 in. (33.3 × 23.5 cm)
Medium: watercolor
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1912.601
Label Text:The owls depicted in this watercolor may be Blakiston’s Fish Owls, named after the English naturalist Thomas Blakiston (1832–1891; buried in Columbus, Ohio), who collected the original specimen in northern Japan in 1883. Critically endangered in Japan, the species is large, measuring between 23 and 28 inches tall with a six-foot wingspan. It lives in forests near bodies of water, preying mainly on fish, which it hunts by wading in shallow water or by watching for movement from a nearby river bank. These owls usually lay one to three eggs, with the young remaining with the parents for up to two years, a behavior represented in this image of an adult with two immature owls.
Blakiston’s Fish Owls are revered by the indigenous Ainu peoples of Hokkaido Japan as a Kamuy (divine being) called Kotan kuru Kamuy (God that Protects the Village).
Blakiston’s Fish Owls are revered by the indigenous Ainu peoples of Hokkaido Japan as a Kamuy (divine being) called Kotan kuru Kamuy (God that Protects the Village).
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