"Sparrow Dance (Renjaku), from the series Gekkô Zuihitsu (Gekkô's Miscellany)"
by Ogata Gekko
- Series:
- Gekkô Zuihitsu
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Museum of Fine Arts Boston
- Image courtesy of
- Museum of Fine Arts Boston
by Ogata Gekko
From the series Gekkō Zuihitsu (Gekkō's Miscellany), this [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e) depicts renjaku—the Bohemian waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus), a winter visitor to Japan whose Japanese name, meaning linked sparrows, reflects their habit of clustering in close-packed flocks. Despite the English translation as sparrow dance, the subject is almost certainly waxwings in animated group movement, a natural phenomenon with strong decorative potential. Gekko likely shows multiple birds in varied postures—perching, in mid-flight, wings spread—arranged against a spare background of winter branches or berries, using the birds' warm chestnut and yellow coloring to animate the composition. The Zuihitsu series gave Gekko latitude for personal subjects outside the commercial pressures of his war and historical print work, and the close observation evident in his bird studies reflects the shaseiga (sketching-from-life) influence that ran through Meiji naturalist print-making. [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations define the birds' soft plumage and create tonal variation across the [washi](/glossary/washi) ground.
"Sparrow Dance (Renjaku), from the series Gekkô Zuihitsu (Gekkô's Miscellany)" was created by Ogata Gekko (尾形月耕).
Yes — "Sparrow Dance (Renjaku), from the series Gekkô Zuihitsu (Gekkô's Miscellany)" is part of the Gekkô Zuihitsu series by Ogata Gekko.
"Sparrow Dance (Renjaku), from the series Gekkô Zuihitsu (Gekkô's Miscellany)" depicts birds & flowers.
