Cuckoo and Azaleas (Hototogisu, satsuki)

Cuckoo and Azaleas (Hototogisu, satsuki) is a Katsushika Hokusai ukiyo-e print of 1829 in the Art Institute of Chicago, part of his celebrated late kacho-e (bird and flower) production. The pairing of the hototogisu, a small migratory cuckoo whose voice is one of the most loved sounds of early summer in Japan, with the azaleas of the fifth month is a deeply traditional poetic combination, and Hokusai treats it with the restraint that subject demands. The composition is tightly vertical, with the bird in flight and the flowering branches arranged to lead the eye through the picture rather than crowd it. Color is used sparingly to set off the bird's plumage against the blossom cluster. As an Edo ukiyo-e print, the sheet belongs to the same set of large bird and flower designs as Bullfinch and Weeping Cherry and is generally regarded as one of the high points of Hokusai's bird and flower work. The pairing's literary weight allows the design to function both as decoration and as a quiet reference to centuries of Japanese poetry about the hototogisu. For collectors and historians, this is one of the most rewarding Hokusai kacho-e designs available outside his major landscape series. The Art Institute of Chicago records the work in its Japanese print holdings.