Crows in Moonlight

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Crows in Moonlight

Artist Ohara Shoson Japanese, 1877-1945

Publisher Watanabe Shozaburo 1885-1962

Date1927

Dimensionsoverall: 15 1/2 x 10 1/4 in. (39.4 x 26 cm)
image: 14 3/4 x 9 5/16 in. (37.5 x 23.6 cm)

Mediumcolor woodblock print

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of Hubert D. Bennett

Object number

1939.270

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. 222.Exhibition HistoryToledo, Toledo Museum of Art, A Special Exhibition of Modern Japanese Prints, March 2-- March 30, 1930, repr. pl. 187.

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 TextOne of Ohara Koson’s favorite subjects, the jungle crow was revered in Japanese folklore as a messenger of the gods. Koson’s keen sense of design is showcased in this print with the black crows on a bare branch at the top of the composition arching across the silvery blue moonlit sky, balanced below only by the orb of the moon.

In recent years, Japan has faced a population explosion of crows in urban centers, with the aggressive birds intimidating the human residents, causing blackouts with their habit of nesting on electrical poles, and cutting telecommunications fiber optic cables to use as nesting material.