Eagle on Snowy Tree Bough is an undated [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e) (bird-and-flower print) by Ohara Koson, signed Shoson, and one of several eagle-in-winter designs that recur in his Watanabe-period output. The image is recorded through the [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e).org image database. The composition centers on a single eagle perched on a heavy, snow-covered tree bough, its body fluffed against the cold and its head turned slightly to one side as if scanning the surrounding landscape. The bough takes up much of the lower visual field, its bulk emphasized by the unprinted paper used to suggest piled snow, and the eagle's dark plumage sits in strong contrast against the white. Behind, a pale and lightly graded ground stands in for an overcast sky. Koson's carving handles the eagle's feather pattern with restrained precision: the major flight feathers and tail bars are articulated, but fine modeling is held back so that the overall silhouette dominates. The palette stays within natural plumage colors: dark browns, near-blacks, and ochres for the bird, with cool greys and whites carrying the snow and sky. As an Ohara Koson Shoson kacho-e, Eagle on Snowy Tree Bough belongs to the shin-hanga revival's broader project of taking traditional bird-and-flower subjects, especially the symbolically charged eagle motif, and rendering them with the workshop discipline and contemplative restraint that distinguished Koson's prints in the international market of the 1920s and 1930s.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Eagle on snowy tree bough was created by Ohara Koson (小原古邨).
Eagle on snowy tree bough depicts birds & flowers and winter.
