Cormorants

Cormorants — likely the Japanese cormorant or the great cormorant common along coastal Japan — appear in a composition focused on the birds themselves rather than a specific landscape setting. Kasamatsu was drawn to the cormorant as a subject combining striking visual form with cultural resonance: these birds were used in ukai cormorant fishing, a practice with a history of over 1,300 years that was still practiced along rivers including the Nagara in Kasamatsu's lifetime. The birds' angular postures and dark plumage gave him sharp graphic material.