Bird at flowering bean plant 1900 - 1930

Ohara Koson made this print of a bird at a flowering bean plant. He probably worked with woodblocks. It feels like a moment frozen in time. Look at the vine stretching up the right side, heavy with pods. You can almost feel the weight of the leaves and the delicate pink flowers. But it’s that bird, hovering mid-air, that really grabs me. It's like it's caught in the middle of a thought, not quite sure where it's going next. Maybe Koson was thinking about that too, the in-between spaces, the possibilities of where to go next. Koson made many prints of birds and flowers. There's something timeless about these subjects, artists keep returning to them again and again. Like a painter dipping their brush in the same pot of color as someone who lived a hundred years ago. Each artist adding their own little twist, their own way of seeing the world.