Crow on Cherry Branch

Description

The exact history of many Ohara Koson woodblock prints is still clouded in mystery. What complicates tracing the origins of some prints is that a number of woodblock print publishers created reprints with clandestine Ohara Koson designs, but they were not of poor quality. The current small print seems to be based on a larger design by Ohara Koson. It does not contain any signature, but is a good print. The print is listed in “Crows, Cranes and Camellias: The Natural World of Ohara Koson,” and it is noted that, besides the “questionable prints, it also gives prints without signatures which seem to be genuine Koson designs”, such as the current one. Its quality and the note in Crows, Cranes and Camelias still leave us guessing about its creation history, however.