Cockatoo and Pamegranate

Cockatoo and Pamegranate (cockatoo and pomegranate) is an undated shin-hanga kacho-e (bird-and-flower print) by Ohara Koson, signed Shoson, and notable for the relatively exotic ornithological subject within his largely Japan-native repertoire. The image is preserved through the ukiyo-e.org image database. Koson's bird-and-flower prints generally favor species observed directly from the gardens, forests, and shorelines of Japan, but cockatoos appear in a small number of his designs as luxuriant set pieces. The composition pairs a perched white cockatoo with a ripe pomegranate, balancing the bird's compact crested form against the heavier sphere of the fruit and its splayed leaves. The palette deploys warm reds and ochres in the pomegranate and its split flesh, against the cool whites and pale yellows of the cockatoo's plumage, with everything held against the soft, lightly graded ground typical of Watanabe-era printing. Bokashi gradations soften the transition from foliage to backdrop. The carving captures the crest, eye, and beak of the bird with the careful but unfussy precision that Watanabe Shozaburo's block-cutters were known for. As an Ohara Koson Shoson kacho-e, Cockatoo and Pamegranate shows how the shin-hanga workshop system could accommodate a slightly more decorative, almost still-life-like composition while remaining within the artist's broader project of restrained, observation-driven bird-and-flower prints.