Two Owls — 蔦もみじのとまり木

Two Owls (蔦もみじのとまり木, Tsuta momiji no tomarigi — literally A perch of ivy and maple) is an F6 woodblock print catalogued under Kasamatsu Shirō on ukiyo-e.org, though, like several of the small-format intimate bird-and-flower designs from the postwar Kasamatsu studio, it has been variously associated with Mihoko in dealer records. The title's Japanese phrasing — referring to a perch (tomarigi) wrapped in ivy (tsuta) and maple (momiji) — places the print squarely in the kachō-e (bird-and-flower picture) tradition, one of the deepest and longest-running genres in Japanese woodblock.

Owls in particular occupy a special place in this tradition. From the celebrated owl prints of Ohara Koson (Shōson) in the early twentieth century through to the postwar bird prints of Yoshida Tōshi, the silhouette of the night bird against branches has been a recurring subject for shin-hanga and sōsaku-hanga artists alike. The combination of owls with the autumnal leaves of maple and the climbing tendrils of ivy gives the design a specifically late-autumn or early-winter mood, a contrast to the spring and summer kachō-e of plum, cherry, and morning glory.

Formally, the F6 sheet keeps the composition tightly focused on the pair of birds and their perch. The print would typically depend on careful tonal control — the muted browns and tans of the owls' plumage set against the warmer reds and yellows of the maple and the deeper greens of the ivy, all on a neutral ground. Whichever generation of the Kasamatsu studio produced it, the print is an accomplished example of how postwar mokuhanga could carry forward the kachō-e tradition in a small-scale, domestic format suited to private collecting rather than gallery display.