Songbird and Lotus 1900 - 1936

Ohara Koson made this print of a lotus and songbird; it is hard to put a precise date on the piece, but he worked between the late 19th and early 20th century. Look how delicately the petals are described with fine lines, like veins on a leaf. The lotus appears soft and ephemeral. It’s all about the process. I can imagine Koson, totally absorbed, gently coaxing the image into being. It is as if each mark is a meditation, a dance between observation and feeling. The lotus here is not just a flower, but a symbol of purity and enlightenment. The smooth, almost translucent quality of the ink creates a dreamlike effect. The lotus floats, and the bird, perched on a petal, becomes a messenger. Koson’s contemporary, Utagawa Hiroshige, used a similar economy of line. Like Hiroshige, Koson leaves space for our imagination to wander. The artwork invites multiple readings, and that’s the beauty of it. It’s a conversation, a question, not a statement.