Ohara Koson, Pheasants in the Snow, 1800s, Woodblock Print, Framed for sale at Pamono

A lovely original woodblock print of one of Koson’s less common works. Featuring a pair of pheasants in a cherry tree. There is some discoloration in horizontal lines across the print but apart from that, the condition is good. In an ebonised wood frame and under glass. There is a postage stamp on the back of the frame dated 1911. Koson Ohara (1877 1945) (aka Shoson or Hoson) was a master of early 20th century kacho-e (bird-and-flower pictures).with meticulous detail, soft color, and a palpable reverence for flora and fauna, Koson carried the genre into the modern era. Koson was born in Kanazawa with the given name Matao Ohara. He began his artistic career studying painting under the Shijo-style master Kason. Around the turn of the century, Koson became a teacher at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, where he met Ernest Fenollosa, an American collector, scholar and admirer of Japanese art and culture. Around 1905, Koson Ohara started to produce Japanese woodblock prints. Fenollosa, the curator of Japanese Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and an adviser to the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, persuaded Koson to export his bird prints to American art collectors. 37cm x 21.5cm including frame