Sparrow, from Pictorial Monograph of Birds (Shūchō gafu)
聚鳥畫譜 — 雀
by Numata Kashū
- Date:
- 1885
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print from a book; ink and color on paper
聚鳥畫譜 — 雀
by Numata Kashū
Sparrow shows the suzume (Eurasian tree sparrow), the most common and most thoroughly literary small bird in the Japanese tradition. The suzume is everywhere in Japanese poetry, folklore, and painting: the tongue-cut sparrow of the medieval folktale Shitakiri Suzume; the sparrow in the rice fields as a signal of seasonal labor and the rural year; the sparrow under the eaves as a sign of household occupancy and continuity; the bamboo-and-sparrow pairing that runs through centuries of decorative arts on lacquer, textiles, and painted scrolls. Kashū's plate in the Shūchō gafu (1885) shows the bird in the simple alert posture of a sparrow on a low perch, with the small chestnut head patch and black throat collar that distinguish the species correctly identified. The plate's interest lies less in its single small bird than in the way it places that bird within Kashū's larger inventory of Japanese avifauna, reminding the album's readers that the most ordinary species of the Japanese yard and field belong on the same pictorial register as the imperial pheasant and the sea-cliff eagle.
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
Sparrow, from Pictorial Monograph of Birds (Shūchō gafu) (聚鳥畫譜 — 雀) was created by Numata Kashū (沼田荷舟) in 1885.
Sparrow, from Pictorial Monograph of Birds (Shūchō gafu) depicts birds & flowers.
