Omu, Parrot

Omu (Parrot) by Ohara Koson, published under the Nishimura Hodo imprint, depicts a colorful parrot perched against a minimal background, exemplifying the shin-hanga kacho-e aesthetic that Koson refined across hundreds of designs. The bird's plumage is rendered through carefully calibrated color blocks — likely greens, yellows, and reds — each requiring a separately carved cherry-wood block and precise registration during printing. Koson exploits the contrast between the parrot's bold tropical coloration and the spare, almost calligraphic branch on which it rests, a compositional strategy that traces back to Ming-dynasty Chinese bird-and-flower painting while feeling distinctly modern in its cropping. Although most of Koson's prints from his peak period were issued by Watanabe Shozaburo, the publisher most associated with shin-hanga, Koson also worked with Nishimura Yohachi (publishing as Nishimura Hodo) during the 1920s and 1930s. The Nishimura prints are typically signed Shoson and tend to feature slightly different paper stock and color palettes than the Watanabe issues, providing collectors with useful attribution markers. Parrots became a recurring motif for Koson, likely responding to Western collector taste for exotic species and to the broader Taisho-era Japanese fascination with cosmopolitan imagery. This particular design is documented in the ukiyo-e.org archive, which aggregates institutional and private holdings of Japanese prints. Omu represents Koson at his most decorative — formal, balanced, and unmistakably crafted for the international market that sustained shin-hanga through the interwar period.