The First Song of the Year — 初音

The Japanese title Hatsune (初音) refers to the first call of the uguisu—Japanese bush warbler—heard in the new year, a sound laden with literary significance from the Man'yôshû through classical waka poetry. The uguisu's first song signaled the arrival of spring and was traditionally awaited as a sign of seasonal renewal. Ebina's print is almost certainly a [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e) (bird-and-flower picture), likely depicting a uguisu perched on a plum branch (ume), the combination of bird and early-blooming tree being the canonical visual shorthand for this celebrated moment. The sparse branch, delicate blossoms, and small songbird would have been rendered with precise outlines and flat color fields offset by soft [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations in the background sky. This genre—celebrating small natural events within a seasonal framework—drew on conventions established by earlier [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) artists and Rimpa school painters, adapted here to the [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) printmaking context.