Dancing Fox with Lotus-leaf Hat by Ohara Koson - 1900s–1910s - 36.3 x 19 cm Museum of Fine Arts Boston Dancing Fox with Lotus-leaf Hat by Ohara Koson - 1900s–1910s - 36.3 x 19 cm Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Dancing Fox with Lotus-leaf Hat

Woodblock print; ink and color on paper • 36.3 x 19 cm
  • Ohara Koson - February 9, 1877 - 1945 Ohara Koson 1900s–1910s

Ohara Koson was a Japanese painter and print designer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, part of the shin-hanga ("new prints") movement.  

Shin-hanga maintained the traditional ukiyo-e collaborative system where the artist, carver, printer, and publisher engaged in division of labor, as opposed to the sōsaku-hanga (creative prints) movement which advocated the principles of "self-drawn" (jiga), "self-carved" (jikoku) and "self-printed" (jizuri), according to which the artist, with the desire of expressing the self, is the sole creator of art.

The movement flourished from around 1915 to 1942, though it resumed briefly from 1946 through the 1950s. Inspired by European Impressionism, the artists incorporated Western elements such as the effects of light and the expression of individual moods, but focused on strictly traditional themes of landscapes (fukeiga), famous places (meishō), beautiful women (bijinga), kabuki actors (yakusha-e), and birds-and-flowers (kachō-e).

Yes, you see well - this is a fox dancing with lotus-leaf hat :) To keep things odd - check our selection of famous lobsters in art here.