top of page

About Shoson

Songbird on a Pink Magnolia by Shoson

​

Ohara Shoson (1877 - 1945)

One of the most prominent woodblock print artists from the Taisho Era.  Before 1912, he used the name Koson in deference to his teacher Suzuki Kason.  In the later years, he changed his name to Shoson under which he published the major part of his work.  He is admired, particularly by collectors in the west/outside Japan, for his focus on the tradition started in Sung China of pairing bird and flower in the same print. This had been adopted by many Japanese artists in the Edo period.

Here we see a pairing of the pink magonolia, with its meaning of dignity, paired with a song bird.  One can imagine this is a message of true love when viewed by the recipient. We have had this in our Private Collection for many years and are now making this available for sale.  For the collector this has been dated circa 1930 and bears the mark of Shoson's printer Watanabe. Please call if you have an interest.
bottom of page