Crows, Cranes & Camellias

The work of print artist Ohara Koson (1877-1945) mainly consists of prints of birds and flowers, characterised by their peaceful charm. This book about Koson is the first Western publication of his oeuvre of prints and paintings. It provides all known information on the artist's life and work, his teachers and publishers, facsimiles of his signatures and seals and illustrations of an estimated seventy-five percent of his total print output, now kept in the splendid collection of Japanese prints in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. First published in 2001, this new edition features an additional chapter on Koson's oeuvre and designs which have been discovered since the original publication of Crows, Cranes and Camellias. This title is the definitive reference book for Koson collectors. The 1st edition with ISBN 9789074822381 is now out of stock.
About the Author: Amy Reigle Newland has worked as a specialist editor and writer on Japanese woodblock prints for some fifteen years, with a particular interest in works of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In either and editorial and/or authorial role, her publications include Japanese Erotic Fantasies: Sexual Imagery of the Edo Period (2005), Printed to Perfection: Twentieth-century Japanese Prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection (2004), A Courtesan's Day: Hour by Hour (2004), The Commercial and Cultural Climate of Japanese Printmaking (2004), Kawase Hasui: The Complete Woodblock Prints (2003), Crows, Cranes & Camellias: The Natural World of Ohara Koson 1877-1945 (2001), Time Present and Time Past: Images of a Forgotten Master - Toyohara Kunichika 1835-1900 (1999), Heroes & Ghosts: Japanese Prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi 1797-1861 (1998), and The New Wave: Twentieth-century Japanese Prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection (1993). The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints (2005) is her most ambitious project to date, one which was coordinated from her home in rural New Zealand.

Robert Schaap was trained as an industrial designer and later received a British Council Scholarship Award to study graphic design at Hornsey College of Art in London. As a graphic designer he has focused on books relating to Japanese prints for some fifteen years, and over the last twenty-five years he has been collecting Japanese prints and paintings. He is a member of the Board of the Society for Japanese Arts and serves as Editor of the Society's journal Andon. Over the years he has written numerous articles and reviews on various aspects of Japanese prints, and has (co)-organized several exhibitions on Japanese prints like Beauty & Violence. Japanese Prints by Yoshitoshi 1839-1892 and Heroes & Ghosts. Japanese Prints by Kuniyoshi 1797-1861 and was the main author of their accompanying catalogues.

Jan Perrée (?-2004) was an architect and a long time collector of Japanese prints.