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
Tea Bowl
Woodblock print
Tree with sun and two birds
Woodblock print
Mole and sparrow
Woodblock print
Ducks attack lizard
Woodblock print
Proverb - Dancing like sparrows
Woodblock print
Untitled (Seated Nude Female with Birds)
1930-1974
Woodblock print
Ripple and Ducks
2000
Woodblock Print
Mandarin Ducks
1920
Woodblock Print
A Bowlful of Water
2015
Japanese Woodcut
Indigo Hexagon Tea Bowl
2016
Woodcut on Japanese Paper
The Sparrow Dance (Suzume odori), from the series One Hundred Pictures by Kyôsai (Kyôsai hyakuzu)
Woodblock print
White Hexagon Tea Bowl
2017
Woodcut on Japanese Paper
For the Birds (Pillar print)
2025
Mokuhanga (woodblock print)
Leaves and Flying Birds
1961
Etching
Ladybirds
Mezzotints
Birds and Flowers
2016
Canvas, gesso, acrylic, spray paint, washi paper, glue, gold and silver leaf, varnish
A hunter and eagle, diptych, 1880
Woodblock print
Rooster and hen
Woodblock print
Wild Ducks Withered Lotus
Woodblock print
Mandarin Duck Notebook 2 — 鴛鴦帳
Woodblock print
Owl and Cherry
Woodblock print
Sparrows
Woodblock print
Fan Print: Kacho: Two Cranes
Woodblock print
Ducks by a Lotus Pond
Woodblock print
Bird and Flower 5
Woodblock print
Ducks and Withered Lotus
Woodblock print
Bird and Cherry Blossoms (Descriptive title)
Woodblock print
Ducks and Dead Lotus — 鴨と枯蓮
Woodblock print
Birds
Woodblock print
Grey Birds
Woodblock print
Heron Daughter (Sagi Musume) - 鷺娘
Woodblock print
Heron Daughter (Sagi Musume) - 鷺娘
Woodblock print
Heron Maiden
Woodblock print
Black Cat and Birds
Woodblock print
Owl
Woodblock print
Three Owls
Woodblock print
young girl with birds in her hair
Woodblock print
Chef prepares dish in bowl
Woodblock print
Sparrow’s dance
Woodblock print
"Sparrow Dance (Renjaku), from the series Gekkô Zuihitsu (Gekkô's Miscellany)"
Woodblock print
Crane at the Edge of a Pond — 池畔之鶴
Woodblock print
Lucky Cranes
Woodblock print
Playing Birds
Woodblock print
Jungle Bouquet
Woodcut
Iris Landscape
Etching
Daffodil
Etching
Iris Landscape 1980
Color lithograph
Flower Landscape 1980
Color lithograph
Daisy #3
Color etching
Golden Daisies
Color etching
Flowers FW
Screenprint
Courtesan with Flower Cart, from the series "Famous Flowers in Three Capitals (Santo meisho no hana)"
early 19th century
Color woodblock print; surimono
Flowers of a Hundred Worlds (Momoyogusa), vols. 1-3
百々世草
1909-10
Set of three woodblock-printed folding-books (orihon); ink, color, gold, and silver on paper
Parasol and Irises
傘と菖蒲図
ca. 1880–1890
Color woodblock print
The Bird Girls (installation view)
2016-2017
Sumi-ink portrait series on paper (74 sheets)
Red and White Camellia
Woodblock print
Gerda and the Rose
Etching
Lotus
Woodblock print
Two Lotus in the Sky
Woodblock print
flower woodcut print with ant by contemporary visual artist and printmaker charles spitzack living and working in his studio in Seattle WA
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.