A hunter and eagle, diptych, 1880

This [diptych](/glossary/diptych) from 1880 depicts a hunter accompanied by or confronting an eagle, a subject that draws on the [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e) tradition of bird-and-figure subjects while inflecting it with Kiyochika's interest in dramatic tonal contrast. Eagles appear in Japanese printmaking both as symbols of martial power and as subjects of naturalistic observation, and the diptych format allowed Kiyochika to spread the composition across two sheets, likely positioning the eagle's wingspan or trajectory against open sky on one sheet and the hunter's figure on the other. The two-sheet format permitted a panoramic sky treatment in which graduated [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) rendered cloud formations or atmospheric haze at a scale impossible within a single [oban](/glossary/oban) sheet. Kiyochika's kosen-ga techniques applied to an outdoor subject in strong lateral light, with the dark plumage of the eagle serving as a foil against an illuminated background, demonstrate his technique beyond its better-known urban nocturne applications.