Hawk on a Cherry Tree

A hashira-e showing a hawk perched on a flowering cherry branch, a pairing that yokes martial symbolism (the hawk, associated with samurai virtue and falconry) to the most celebrated emblem of Japanese seasonal beauty (the cherry, sakura). The kacho-e tradition of bird-and-flower prints stretched back to Chinese painting models and was a staple of Edo-period printmaking, and Toyohiro's contribution here is a clean, unfussy composition that uses the tall, narrow pillar format to dramatize the vertical reach of the branch and the alert posture of the bird. The print also testifies to Toyohiro's interest in non-figural subjects: alongside his bijin-ga and landscapes, he produced a significant body of kacho work, and the Art Institute of Chicago's holding records a careful, well-printed impression of this side of his output.