Two Deers

Two deer — almost certainly sika deer (Cervus nippon), the species native to Japan and most often depicted in Japanese art — rendered as a paired composition. Deer carry deep iconographic weight in Japan, associated with the sacred precincts of Kasuga Shrine in Nara, with autumn and the calling of the stag, and with the seasonal poetry of the Kokin Wakashu. Koson's pair are likely placed among maple leaves, hagi (bush clover), or pampas grass to specify the autumnal mood, with the dappled summer coat or the plainer winter coat carved as a separate block to be printed in a soft, ochre tone. As with his rabbit subjects, deer represent the mammalian margin of Koson's largely avian output, and prints of this type connect his shin-hanga practice back to the long lineage of stag-and-doe imagery in classical Japanese painting from the Rinpa school onward, while retaining the tighter, more naturalistic observation that defines his work.