Monkey and Dragonfly

Monkey and Dragonfly is an undated shin-hanga kacho-e (bird-and-flower print) by Ohara Koson, signed Shoson, and an example of his occasional pairing of a mammal with an insect rather than the more typical bird-and-flower combination. The image is preserved through the ukiyo-e.org image database. The composition shows a Japanese macaque attentive to a dragonfly hovering nearby, the monkey's body and face described with the same observational accuracy Koson brought to his birds, and the dragonfly carefully placed to draw the eye across the otherwise calm sheet. The relationship between the two creatures is wholly visual: there is no overt narrative, only the small drama of the monkey's gaze. Koson keeps the palette restrained, with warm browns and ochres in the monkey's fur, a translucent grey-green or pink in the dragonfly's wings, and a softly graded ground that pushes both subjects forward without competing for attention. The carving captures the monkey's facial expression and hand posture with notable precision, while the dragonfly's lacy wings demonstrate the fineness possible in the Watanabe Shozaburo workshop's block-cutting. As an Ohara Koson Shoson print, Monkey and Dragonfly extends the bird-and-flower tradition into a slightly more anecdotal subject without departing from the shin-hanga discipline of restrained color, clean silhouette, and contemplative composition.