Black-eared Kite, from Pictorial Monograph of Birds (Shūchō gafu)

Black-eared Kite is one of the larger-format plates in Numata Kashū's Shūchō gafu (1885), depicting the tobi (black kite, also called black-eared kite), the most abundant and widely recognized raptor of the Japanese archipelago. The black kite is a familiar sight wheeling over Japanese rivers, coastlines, and urban edges, particularly around port cities and harbors where it scavenges along the water; its plaintive whistling call is one of the audible signatures of the Japanese rural and coastal landscape. Kashū's plate gives the bird the kind of close anatomical observation that the Shūchō gafu applies throughout: the rounded primary feathers, the angled forked tail that distinguishes the species from other Japanese raptors, the alert posture and dark eye band that gives the bird its English name. The image is also significant within the album's structure because it represents one of Kashū's larger raptor compositions, alongside the golden eagle plate, demonstrating the range of bird sizes and habitats the 1885 publication was prepared to document at full multi-block color-printing standard.