Reader Collection > Exhibitions > Red Fruits in Japanese Flower-Bird Art

Introduction

Every flower contains ovules within an ovary. Once a flower is fertilized the ovules-within–an-ovary develop into seeds-within-a-fruit. This developmental process is illustrated below.

Many fruits are red in color, presumably to best catch the eye of fruit-eating birds which digest the fruit’s outer fleshy covering and later excrete the seeds at some distance from the parent plant. The edible fleshy covering is the bird’s reward for serving as an agent of seed dispersal for the immobile parent plant. Red fruits are eye-catching not only to birds but to humans as well. Consequently, it is perhaps not surprising that the genre of Japanese flower-bird art includes not only pictures of eye-catching flowers-and-birds but also eye-catching red fruits-and-birds. Twenty examples of these red fruits-and-birds pictures, chosen from the Reader Collection of Japanese Flower-and-Bird Art, are included in this virtual exhibition. The following information is given for each picture: names of the fruit, bird and artist, title (if any) of the picture or book in which the picture was included, date (if any), printing method and picture size.

1   Japanese persimmon (Diospyros kaki) and Japanese white-eye (Zosterops japonicus) by Soseki Komori, woodblock print, 225 x 400 mm

2   Pomegranate (Punica granatum) and varied tit (Sittiparus varius) by Jō, woodblock print, 195 x 400 mm

3   Heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) and brown-eared bulbul (Ixos amaurotis) by Rakusan Tsuchiya, woodblock print entitled winter, heavenly bamboo and brown-eared bulbul, 570 x 430 mm

4   Blueberries (Vaccinium oldhami) and brambling (Fringilla montifringilla) by Masaru Aoyagi, screenprint, 470 x 345 mm

5   Japanese bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) and Daurian redstart (Phoenicurus auroreus) by Bihō Takahashi, woodblock print, 240 x 270 mm

6   Linden viburnum (Viburnum dilatatum) and varied tit (Sittiparus varius) by Tōshi Yoshida, 1982, woodblock print entitled The Flowers and Birds of the Oriental Year – November, 195 x 255 mm

7   Japanese laurel (Aucuba japonica) and Daurian redstart (Phoenicurus auroreus) by Tōshi Yoshida, 1977, woodblock print entitled sitting under snow-covered leaves, 340 x 540 mm

8   Japanese winterberry (Ilex serrata) and great tit (Parus major) by Shundei Nakamura, woodblock print entitled Japanese winterberry and great tit, 270 x 415 mm

9   Cherry (Prunus sp.) and Japanese waxwing (Bombycilla japonica) by Koson Ohara, woodblock print, 190 x 380 mm

10   Balsam-apple (Momordica charantia) and long-tailed rosefinch (Uragus sibiricus) by Keinen Imao, 1891-92, woodblock print included in Keinen Kachō Gafu (i.e., Picture Album of Flowers and Birds by Keinen), 260 x 370 mm

11   Japanese-pepper (Zanthoxylum piperitum) and Daurian redstart (Phoenicurus auroreus) by Sōzan Itō, woodblock print, 260 x 180 mm

12   Snake gourd (Trichosanthes cucumeroides) and white-cheeked starling (Sturnus cineraceus) by Seitei Watanabe, 1916, woodblock print included in Nijūni Kachō (i.e., Twenty-two Flowers and Birds), 380 x 285 mm

13   Winged spindletree (Euonymus alatus) and Japanese white-eye (Zosterops japonicus) by Bairei Kōno, 1893, woodblock print included in Bairei Kachō Gafu (i.e., Picture Album of Flowers and Birds by Bairei), edited by Gessai Fukui, 270 x 210 mm

14   Chinese smilax (Smilax china) and varied tit (Sittiparus varius) by Suiun Komuro, woodblock print, 370 x 270 mm

15   Ilex (Ilex micrococca) and Daurian redstart (Phoenicurus auroreus) by Keinen Imao, 1891-92, woodblock print included in Keinen Kachō Gafu (i.e., Picture Album of Flowers and Birds by Keinen), 260 x 370 mm

16   Nightshade (Solanum maximowiczii) and yellow-throated bunting (Emberiza elegans) by Keinen Imao, 1891-92, woodblock print included in Keinen Kachō Gafu (i.e., Picture Album of Flowers and Birds by Keinen), 260 x 370 mm

17   Schisandra (Schisandra chinensis) and great tit (Parus major) by Bairei Kōno, 1881, woodblock print included in Bairei Hyakuchō Gafu (i.e., One Hundred Birds by Bairei), 165 x 250 mm

18   Japanese kadsura (Kadsura japonica) and narcissus flycatcher (Ficedula narcissina) by Bairei Kōno, 1881, woodblock print included in Bairei Hyakuchō Gafu (i.e., One Hundred Birds by Bairei), 165 x 250 mm

19   Sacred lily (Rohdea japonica) and Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus) by Bihō Takahashi, woodblock print, 250 x 225 mm

20   Mock strawberry (Duchesnea indica) and domestic fowl (Gallus gallus) by Hokusai Katsushika, 1877, woodblock print included in Hokusai Gaen (i.e., Garden of Hokusai Sketches), 320 x 165 mm

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