Ohara Koson

Ohara Shoson was also known as Ohara Matao. He studied the classical style of Japanese painting under the master, Suzuki Kason. He first used the name Koson but changed it to Shoson in 1912. His reverence for natural beauty is apparent in his meticulous detail and unfailing verisimilitude. Shoson was a teacher at the Tokyo School of Art & an adviser to the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; his prints are housed there as well as in the Toledo Museum of Art & the British Museum. These prints are dated as to when they were designed. They were printed after 1945 by Shoson's publisher & printer.

Shoson [also Koson], (Japanese, 1860-1919)

Ohara Shoson (born Ohara Matao) was one of the principal shin hanga designers of flower and bird prints, acclaimed by some as the undisputed 20th century master of nature prints. He used the artist name Koson before 1911. Between 1911 and 1926 there is no evidence that he produced any prints. Around 1926 he began working under the name Shoson in association with the preeminent shin hanga publisher Watanabe Shozaburo. Shoson provides an excellent example of the difficulties presented by the traditional Japanese habit of assuming an artist name and changing it more or less frequently, not necessarily abandoning an old name when a new one was assumed.

This particular Shoson image is one of the most highly regarded of his designs published after 1926. To the Western eye it is a quintessentially Japanese motif. It depicts a small egret (Egretta garzetta) in a snow covered tree, utilizing a decorative style that made Shoson's work immensely popular in the West. Much of his work was intended for export. Although marketing affected how his works were viewed in Japan, he drew on very traditional design sources and values. Shoson's birds looked back to a very long legacy of Japanese bird prints, as the other prints in this group well illustrate.