Japanese Print "Mandarin Ducks (Oshidori)" by Utagawa Hiroshige
Artist:Utagawa Hiroshige
Title:Mandarin Ducks (Oshidori)
Date:about 1836
Details:More information...
Source:Worcester Art Museum
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Description:
Bird: Mandarin Duck, Aix galericulata Linneaus. Plants: Water plantains with flowers and broad leaves.Label Text: Depicted in pairs, mandarin ducks (oshidori) symbolize married love and fidelity. According to legends, mandarin ducks stay together for life. The haiku reads: For mandarin ducks Thin ice is a wedding cup, Now and forever. Oshidori no / sakazuki to chiyo / usukori The resplendent drake swimming in the lead is endowed with a red bill, a sweeping white brow, long orange-red whiskers, a crest of chestnut, green, and purple feathers as well as cinnamon-orange fan-shaped 'sails' (tertiary feathers). The smaller female, on the other hand, is grayish-brown with a white eye-ring and rear eye-stripe. As a pair they will build a nest in a tree-hole at the water's edge. Artistic touches add to the subtlety of the composition: a blade of grass and the beak of the female direct our attention towards the calligraphy while broad impressionistic strokes depicting the flowing, transparent water allow us a glimpse of the drake's paddling red feet.
