Animals, Birds, & Flowers (動物・花鳥)

Animals, birds and flowers have been established subjects in Japanese art for centuries. In Japan, kachō-e (花鳥絵) - pictures of birds and flowers - became an important subject in painting, illustrated books and woodblock printing. During the Edo period, artists combined close observation with established seasonal and poetic associations: particular birds, blossoms and plants could evoke a specific time of year, while fish and animals appeared more broadly across popular imagery. By the 19th century, Utagawa Hiroshige had brought bird-and-flower prints to particular prominence, pairing concise compositions and natural detail with the colour and immediacy of ukiyo-e woodblock printing.

The tradition continued to develop through the Meiji period, when increasingly sophisticated printed albums reflected both artistic convention and a growing interest in detailed observation of the natural world. Shin-hanga artists later returned to birds, flowers and animals through refined colour printing, atmosphere and careful naturalism. With the rise of sōsaku-hanga in the early 20th century, these familiar subjects became more personal and experimental. Greater emphasis on the artist as designer, carver and printer encouraged bolder simplification, visible carving and individual approaches to colour and surface, allowing a crane, cat, carp or flower to function as much as shape, texture and composition as a description of nature.

This collection follows that development through modern and contemporary Japanese printmaking. It brings together original prints in which animals, birds, fish and plant life move between observation and stylisation: from the simplified forms and strong graphic character of post-war woodblock printing to contemporary works shaped by humour, symbolism, abstraction and individual experience. Across woodblock, silkscreen, etching and other techniques, familiar subjects are continually reworked rather than simply repeated. Together, the works show how one of the oldest strands of Japanese image-making remains an active part of printmaking today, changing with the artists and techniques that take it forward.