Herons in Reeds

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Herons in Reeds

Artist Ohara Shoson Japanese, 1877-1945

Date1926

Dimensionsoverall: 15 x 10 1/8 in. (38.1 x 25.7 cm)
image: 14 1/4 x 9 3/8 in. (36.2 x 23.8 cm)

Mediumcolor woodblock print

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of Hubert D. Bennett

Object number

1939.258

Not on View

Collections

Works on Paper

Published ReferencesPutney, Carolyn M., Kendall H. Brown, Koyama Shuko, and Paul Binnie, Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints, Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 2013. repr. (col.) pp. 214, Cover.Exhibition HistoryToledo, Toledo Museum of Art, A Special Exhibition of Modern Japanese Prints, March 2-- March 30, 1930, repr. pl. 174.

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, For the Birds, April 13-October 14, 2012.

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints, October 4, 2013-January 1, 2014.

Label TextOhara Koson was a master of the kachoga print—images of the natural world, but particularly of birds and flowers. Over his career he produced more than 450 designs of birds. Typically his images were not of exotic species, but of birds that were commonly seen in Japan, like the Northern Goshawk of this print, a wide-ranging species that occurs across Northern Europe, Asia, and the United States. Koson’s aim was to balance a naturalistic portrayal of his subjects with a decorative sensibility—and a desire to convey the spirit of the birds he depicted. Born Ohara Matao, he took Koson as his artist name, but used the name Shoson for the prints he produced for publisher Watanabe Shozaburo beginning around 1926.