（白鷺の群）

A Flock of Egrets (白鷺の群) depicts the great egret or little egret in flight or at rest, a subject with deep precedent in Japanese painting and printmaking. Kiyochika's treatment likely emphasizes the white plumage of the birds against a dark ground—marsh reeds, evening sky, or open water—exploiting the same contrast between intense white and deep shadow that characterizes his architectural and urban prints. The multiple birds in flight allow study of wingspan and movement across the picture plane. Egrets were associated with purity and with the wetlands and river estuaries that were gradually giving way to Meiji-era reclamation projects, giving such subjects an implicit resonance with loss of the pre-modern landscape.