Siskin and Euonymus Alata, from Pictorial Monograph of Birds (Shūchō gafu)
聚鳥畫譜 — 真鶸と錦木
by Numata Kashū
- Date:
- 1885
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print from a book; ink and color on paper
聚鳥畫譜 — 真鶸と錦木
by Numata Kashū
Siskin and Euonymus Alata pairs the mahiwa (Eurasian siskin, a small yellow-green finch common in Japan as a winter resident from northern breeding ranges) with the red-leaved autumn branches of nishikigi (Euonymus alata, the burning-bush spindle tree, a shrub whose brilliant scarlet autumn foliage is among the most prized of the Japanese garden palette). The combination places the plate firmly in autumn, with the siskin's olive-yellow plumage set against the burning red of the nishikigi leaves in a deliberately concentrated complementary-color composition. Kashū's drawing in the Shūchō gafu (1885) shows the siskin in the kind of alert clinging posture that the species characteristically assumes on seed-bearing branches, with the structure of its short conical beak and forked tail carefully described. The plate is a good example of the way the album balances small-scale anatomical observation with the larger-scale autumn-color decorative logic that the Japanese kachō-e tradition had inherited from centuries of seasonal poetry and Rinpa-influenced decorative painting.
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
Siskin and Euonymus Alata, from Pictorial Monograph of Birds (Shūchō gafu) (聚鳥畫譜 — 真鶸と錦木) was created by Numata Kashū (沼田荷舟) in 1885.
Siskin and Euonymus Alata, from Pictorial Monograph of Birds (Shūchō gafu) depicts birds & flowers.
