Bullfinch and Weeping Cherry

In this beautiful print, Katsushika Hokusai pairs a bullfinch (uso) with the delicate blossoms of a weeping cherry, combining two motifs deeply associated with Japanese seasonal and cultural traditions. The bullfinch plays an important role in New Year ceremonies held at Tenjin shrines across Japan, where worshipers exchange wooden carvings of the bird for newly blessed ones believed to ward off misfortune in the coming year. Hokusai depicts the male bullfinch, identifiable by the distinctive pink plumage extending from its cheeks to its throat, demonstrating the close observation of nature for which he was renowned.

The artist had a particular interest in birds, devoting detailed instructions to drawing and coloring the bullfinch in his painting manual Essence of Colouring (1848). Here, the bird perches among the branches of a weeping cherry tree, whose opening buds and blossoms are rhythmically arranged and accented with touches of bright red, evoking the freshness of early spring.

Accompanying the image is a haiku by the poet Bunrai'an Setsuman, a member of the Setsumon school with whom Hokusai collaborated:

A single bird
Wets its feathers and flits away:
Morning cherry.

The poem catches a moment as the bird departs from a dew-covered flowering cherry tree.

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