Scops Owl in Flight, Cherry Blossoms and Full Moon (1926)
by Ohara Koson (Japanese, 1877–1945)
A small owl cuts through the night air, wings spread, passing through a scatter of cherry blossoms beneath a full moon. The composition is spare and perfectly balanced — the owl's motion against the stillness of the blossoms, the dark sky holding everything together.
Ohara Koson — also known as Ohara Shōson and Ohara Hōson — was one of the most prolific and internationally celebrated artists of the shin-hanga ("new prints") movement, which emerged in early 20th-century Japan as a deliberate revival and modernization of the traditional ukiyo-e woodblock print tradition. Where ukiyo-e had focused on actors, courtesans, and landscapes, Koson specialized in kacho-e — bird-and-flower subjects — bringing to them an extraordinary sensitivity to light, texture, and the specific character of individual species.
His prints were exported to the United States and Europe in large numbers, where they found an enthusiastic audience among collectors drawn to their combination of technical precision and quiet emotional depth. This print — an owl in flight through cherry blossoms under a full moon — brings together three of the most resonant images in Japanese visual culture: the owl as symbol of wisdom and the nocturnal world, the cherry blossom as emblem of transience, and the full moon as the light that makes the invisible visible.
Rectangle Canvas Wrap
Gallery-quality canvas with fade-resistant inks and a 1.25" deep pine frame sourced from renewable forests. Arrives wrapped and ready to hang.
- Materials: cotton and polyester composite canvas, pine wood frame
- Inner frame: radiata pine from renewable forests
- Leveling bumpers included for wall protection
- Ready to hang — mounting hardware pre-attached
Care: Dust gently with a clean, damp cloth as needed.