Birds & Flowers Prints (1639)
Birds and flowers (kacho-ga) form one of the three classical subject categories of East Asian painting, alongside landscapes and figures. In Japanese woodblock printmaking, the tradition produced some of the medium's most technically accomplished works, demanding exceptional carving precision for feather details and botanical accuracy. Hokusai's "Small Flowers" series and Hiroshige's bird-and-flower prints of the 1830s established kacho-ga as a major ukiyo-e genre. These works combined natural observation with poetic sensibility, often incorporating verses that amplified the seasonal or emotional associations of their subjects. The surimono tradition — privately commissioned luxury prints — particularly favored bird-and-flower subjects, producing exquisite small-format works with metallic pigments and blind embossing. Shin-hanga artists continued the tradition with renewed naturalistic ambition. Ohara Koson (also known as Shoson) became the genre's most prolific modern practitioner, creating hundreds of bird-and-flower designs that combined scientific observation with decorative elegance. His prints of egrets, crows, and songbirds in atmospheric settings became internationally popular. The genre demands particular technical skill in color gradation and fine-line carving, making kacho-ga prints a showcase for the collaborative craft of designer, carver, and printer.
Artists Known for Birds & Flowers
Fan with Thistle — 薊図団
Woodblock print
Never Nest
Etching with chine collé and hand coloring
Moon and Bird
Etching with chine collé and hand coloring
Gallinule- moorhen
Woodblock print
Moorhens
1929
Color woodblock print
Untitled (soseki-komori)
Woodblock print
Untitled (inuzuka-taisui)
Woodblock print
Untitled (inuzuka-taisui)
Woodblock print
Untitled (inuzuka-taisui)
Woodblock print
Tenjiku Tokubei, Chichu no renge (Tenjiku Tokubei, Lotus) / Tosei mitate sanju-rokkasen 當盛見立 三十六花撰 (Contemporary Kabuki Actors Likened to Thirty-Six Flowers (Immortals of Poetry))
Untitled (inuzuka-taisui)
Woodblock print
Ume no Yoshibei, Date-zome no sagi-so (Ume no Yoshibei, Fringed orchid) / Tosei mitate sanju-rokkasen 當盛見立 三十六花撰 (Contemporary Kabuki Actors Likened to Thirty-Six Flowers (Immortals of Poetry))
Hanakawado Sukeroku, Edo zakura (Hanakawado Sukeroku, Edo y Blossom) / Tosei mitate sanju-rokkasen 當盛見立 三十六花撰 (Contemporary Kabuki Actors Likened to Thirty-Six Flowers (Immortals of Poetry))
Ducks in Water
c. 1928–1930
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Untitled (soseki-komori)
Woodblock print
Untitled (soseki-komori)
Woodblock print
Untitled (soseki-komori)
Woodblock print
Sansho-dayu no musume, Osan, Keito no hana (Osan, daughter of Sansho-dayu, Cockscomb) / Tosei mitate sanju-rokkasen 當盛見立 三十六花撰 (Contemporary Kabuki Actors Likened to Thirty-Six Flowers (Immortals of Poetry))
Takechi Mitsuhide, Amagasaki no kikyo (Takechi Mitsuhide, Bellflower) / Tosei mitate sanju-rokkasen 當盛見立 三十六花撰 (Contemporary Kabuki Actors Likened to Thirty-Six Flowers (Immortals of Poetry))
Swans
Woodblock print
Chigusa Kotani
Woodblock print
Blue Birds and Akebia
Woodblock print
Vol de Nuit
Mezzotint
Fishing for Cormorants at Nagaragawa
Woodblock print
Untitled (soseki-komori)
Woodblock print
Untitled (soseki-komori)
Woodblock print
Branch with Berries
Woodblock print
Flower Spirit
花の精
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Bird and Woman
Lithograph
Looking Out
Woodblock print
Untitled (ikeda-zuigetsu)
Woodblock print
Untitled (inuzuka-taisui)
Woodblock print
Untitled (tekiho-imoto)
Woodblock print
Hawk
Lithograph
Untitled (soseki-komori)
Woodblock print
Untitled (soseki-komori)
Woodblock print
Tokuoka Shinsen (1896-1972)
Woodblock print
Flowers 1
Woodblock print
White Egret
Woodblock print
Untitled (inuzuka-taisui)
Woodblock print
Daffodils Symphony
Serigraph (silkscreen)
Crows
1961
Untitled (soseki-komori)
Woodblock print
Shirai Gonpachi, Nokiba no fuji (Shirai Gonpachi, Wisteria) / Tosei mitate sanju-rokkasen 當盛見立 三十六花撰 (Contemporary Kabuki Actors Likened to Thirty-Six Flowers (Immortals of Poetry))
Tosei mitate sanju-rokkasen 當盛見立 三十六花撰 (Contemporary Kabuki Actors Likened to Thirty-Six Flowers)
Harvest
Woodblock print
Watonai, Suimen no beninohana (Watonai, Safflower) / Tosei mitate sanju-rokkasen 當盛見立 三十六花撰 (Contemporary Kabuki Actors Likened to Thirty-Six Flowers (Immortals of Poetry))
Untitled (ikeda-zuigetsu)
Woodblock print
Zuigetsu Ikeda
Woodblock print
Two Black Geese
Woodblock print
Kiyomizu mode no Kagekiyo, Moyo no azami (Kagekiyo on a Kiyomizu Pilgrimage, Thistle) / Tosei mitate sanju-rokkasen 當盛見立 三十六花撰 (Contemporary Kabuki Actors Likened to Thirty-Six Flowers (Immortals of Poetry))
Calla
Silkscreen
Calla 2
Silkscreen
Two Ducks Swimming Among Reeds
c. 1834/39
Color woodblock print; chu-tanzaku
Untitled (inuzuka-taisui)
Woodblock print
Untitled (inuzuka-taisui)
Woodblock print
Calla 3
Silkscreen
Calla 4
Silkscreen
Calla 6
Silkscreen
Calla 7
Silkscreen
Related Subjects
Frequently Asked Questions
Birds and flowers (kacho-ga) form one of the three classical subject categories of East Asian painting, alongside landscapes and figures. In Japanese woodblock printmaking, the tradition produced some of the medium's most technically accomplished works, demanding exceptional carving precision for feather details and botanical accuracy.
Sugiura Kazutoshi, Ohara Koson, and Kimura Yoshiharu are among the artists most associated with birds & flowers in our collection. Browse the full list of artists who explored this subject above.
Hanga currently catalogues 1639 prints tagged with birds & flowers, spanning ukiyo-e, shin-hanga, and sōsaku-hanga traditions where applicable.