Eastern Waxwing, from Pictorial Monograph of Birds (Shūchō gafu)
聚鳥畫譜 — 緋連雀
by Numata Kashū
- Date:
- 1885
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print from a book; ink and color on paper
聚鳥畫譜 — 緋連雀
by Numata Kashū
Eastern Waxwing depicts the hi-renjaku (Japanese waxwing, Bombycilla japonica), an East Asian relative of the more familiar European and North American waxwings, distinguished by its dark crested head, soft fawn-grey body plumage, and bright red waxy tail tip that gives the species its Japanese name ("red-twined-paired bird"). The Japanese waxwing is a winter visitor to the Japanese archipelago from northeastern Asian breeding grounds, often arriving in noisy flocks that descend on berry-bearing trees to feed; its silky plumage and crested profile have made it a recurring motif in late-Edo and Meiji kachō-e despite its inconspicuous Western reputation. Kashū's plate in the Shūchō gafu (1885) renders the bird with the kind of close-observed plumage detail that the Meiji-period Tokyo color-printing trade was uniquely well equipped to handle: the soft tonal gradation of the body, the crisp dark crest and eye-stripe, the brilliant terminal red of the tail feathers. The image is among the album's quiet successes — a bird many viewers will never have seen in life, presented with both anatomical correctness and a sense of the species' particular avian elegance.
聚鳥畫譜 — 鵯と柊
1885
Color woodblock print from a book; ink and color on paper
聚鳥畫譜 — 鵯と浜茄子
1885
Color woodblock print from a book; ink and color on paper
聚鳥畫譜 — 蒿雀と葦
1885
Color woodblock print from a book; ink and color on paper
聚鳥畫譜 — 鷲と荒海
1885
Color woodblock print from a book; ink and color on paper
Eastern Waxwing, from Pictorial Monograph of Birds (Shūchō gafu) (聚鳥畫譜 — 緋連雀) was created by Numata Kashū (沼田荷舟) in 1885.
Eastern Waxwing, from Pictorial Monograph of Birds (Shūchō gafu) depicts birds & flowers.
