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Ohara Koson (alsoOhara Hōson,Ohara Shōson) (Kanazawa 1877 – Tokyo 1945) was a Japanesepainter andwoodblock print designer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at the forefront ofshinsaku-hanga andshin-hanga art movements.^[1]

Ohara Koson was famous as a master ofkachō-e (bird-and-flower) designs. Throughout a prolific career, in which he created around 500 prints, he went by three different titles: Ohara Hōson (小原豊邨), Ohara Shōson (小原祥邨) and Ohara Koson.^[2]

He was born Ohara Matao; it is thought that he started training in painting and design at theIshikawa Prefecture Technical School in 1889–1893. He also studied painting with Suzuki Kason (1860–1919), although accounts differ on whether this happened during his school years or after he moved toTokyo in the middle to late 1890s.

In Tokyo, he produced someukiyo-etriptychs illustrating episodes of theRusso-Japanese War, but most of his production was prints of birds-and-flowers (kachō-e).^[3][4] He worked at first withpublishers Akiyama Buemon (Kokkeidō) and Matsuki Heikichi (Daikokuya), signing his work Koson. Starting around 1926, he became associated with the publisherWatanabe Shōzaburō, and signed his work Shōson. He also worked with the publisher Kawaguchi, signing his works Hōson.

Through his association with Watanabe, Ohara's work was exhibited abroad, and his prints sold well, particularly in theUnited States. He was active designing prints until at least 1935, and died at his home in Tokyo in 1945.

His work is held in several museums worldwide, including theToledo Museum of Art,^[3] theBrooklyn Museum,^[5] theBritish Museum,^[6] theUniversity of Michigan Museum of Art,^[7] theChazen Museum of Art,^[8] theMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston,^[9] theHarvard Art Museums,^[10] theRijksmuseum,^[11] theCarnegie Museum of Art,^[12] theSaint Louis Art Museum,^[13] theIndianapolis Museum of Art,^[4] theMuseum of New Zealand,^[14] theMuseum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia,^[15] theBirmingham Museum of Art,^[16] theJohn and Mable Ringling Museum of Art,^[17] and theClark Art Institute.^[18]

TheManggha museum in Krakow, Poland held a large retrospective in 2021 from the collection of Romanian musical artistAdrian Ciceu, brother ofEugen Cicero.^[19][20]

• 
  Wagtail and Lotus, between 1912 and 1918, woodblock print, 37.7 × 16.4 cm.Brooklyn Museum
• 
  Cawing crow, c. 1900s
• 
  Cat and Bowl of Goldfish, 1933
• 
  Crow and Blossom,c. 1910
• 
  Five Egrets Descending in Snow,c. 1920s
• 
  Blue Irises, date unknown
• 
  Siberian Blue Nightingale near a peony under a snowy sheaf, c.1925-c.1936
• 
  Sumō-wrestling toads, c. 1930
• 
  Scops Owl, Cherry Blossoms, and Moon, 1926
• 
  Heron at full moon

• Amy Reigle Newland, Jan Perree & Robert Schaap.Koson Ohara - Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, "Crows, Cranes & Camellias. The Natural World of Ohara Koson 1877-1945. Japanese Prints from the Jan Perree Collection". Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2001.ISBN 90-74822-38-X.

• Shimizu, HisaoThe Publisher Watanabe Shozaburo and the Birth of Shin-Hanga inWater and Shadow: Kawase Hasui and Japanese Landscape Prints edited by Kendall Brown, Hotei Publishing, 2014.ISBN 9789004284654

Media related toOhara Koson at Wikimedia Commons

• Koson Ohara prints

• Ukiyo-e
• 1877 births
• 1945 deaths
• Artists from Kanazawa, Ishikawa
• Shin hanga artists
• 20th-century Japanese painters
• 20th-century Japanese printmakers
• Bird artists
• Japanese animal artists
• 20th-century Japanese male artists
• Japanese male painters

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