Works by Ohara Koson

Three names, Koson, Shōson and Hōson, appear on the bird-and-flower woodblock prints of Ohara Koson, and which one he signed depended on the publisher.

The first was a tribute: born Ohara Matao in Kanazawa, he studied painting under Suzuki Kason and took the name Koson, “son of Kason”. The signatures show the other two: a heron in snow is signed 豊邨, Hōson, his name for the publisher Kawaguchi, and five gulls over a stormy sea 祥邨, Shōson, his name for Watanabe Shōzaburō from about 1926.

For Watanabe he made ōban prints in unusually strong colours. His work sold well abroad, above all in the United States, but Japan hardly knew him for most of his career, and once his prints caught on there from 1970 they had to be brought back. Most of the prints here show birds and animals, with some flowers, a few figures and landscapes. One potted azalea appears as a print with a brown pot and as a drawing in colour with a blue pot, flower for flower the same.

Sources: Wikidata, Wikipedia, Rijksmuseum.