Mandarin ducks

A pair of mandarin ducks — oshidori — has been a kacho-e subject since the Edo period, conventionally read as an emblem of marital devotion because the species is observed to pair for life. Kasamatsu's treatment falls within the bird-and-flower line of his output rather than his more numerous landscape designs. The print isolates the birds against a quiet ground of water, reeds, or snow, using the male's distinctive russet sail feathers and orange flank as a chromatic accent against the more subdued female. Kacho-e prints rely on precise key-block carving for plumage detail and on multiple color blocks for the small but saturated areas of the male's coloration. Within Kasamatsu's body of approximately 280 designs, kacho-e subjects connect him to a long lineage running from Hokusai and Hiroshige's bird series through to the shin-hanga kacho-e of Ohara Koson, with whom he was roughly contemporary.