Crow in Snow Bookmark

Ohara Shōson (Koson) (Japanese, 1877–1945)
Crow in Snow, n.d.

Though he painted periodically throughout his career, Ohara Shōson is best known today for his beautiful woodblock prints of birds and flowers. Around 1926 Shōson began collaborating with publisher Watanabe Shozaburo, a leading proponent of the colorful, Western-influenced shin hanga (new prints) movement. After participating in two milestone shin hanga exhibitions at the Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art in 1930 and 1936—the largest displays of such art ever presented at that time—Shōson became well known in the West. Only after his death did his prints attract widespread appreciation in his native Japan.