This is one of the more uncommon 'pairings' in Hiroshige's vast catalogue of kacho-e (bird-flower images). Designs in this genre commonly use a plant paired with a bird, but as you can see in this example, he has stretched the definition somewhat. The Yamabuki plant (Kerria japonica) has given its name to a color shade in the Japanese palette, and when the ukiyo-e printer is faced with working on this design, he simply goes to his pigment jars, selects a base yellow, and blends it with enough red to make ... 'yamabuki'.