Quail In flight

Quail in Flight depicts the small ground-dwelling bird (uzura) caught in mid-air, an unusual choice given that quail are more often shown foraging among grasses or millet. The print likely captures the brief, low, whirring flight that quail make when flushed, with wings spread to show the patterned feathering on the underside. This pose required precise carving of the keyblock to articulate primary and secondary feathers, and the printer would have used multiple impressions to build the bird's mottled brown, buff, and cream plumage — the same technique Koson's workshop applied to other ground birds such as pheasant and partridge. Quail carry literary associations with autumn fields and were a recurring subject in Edo-period kacho-e, often paired with millet stalks or chrysanthemums. By isolating the quail in flight against an unmodulated or lightly graded ground, Koson strips the motif to its essential ornithological content, a compositional approach he favored particularly in his Shoson-signed prints from the 1920s and 1930s.