Two birds are perching on a tree branch back to back. The right one is a jay (‘kakesu’) and the left one is (‘fukurou’).

If you study images of these birds you will be surprised to see how precisely Utamaro depicted the features of the birds in this collection. We have to remember that in his era there were no photographs, nor would he have ever used a pair of binoculars.

In the first poem the right bird (jay) is called ’kashi-dori かし鳥’ - another name of this bird. The brown gradation on the wing and the gray gradation on the shaded area of the body are delicately done.

The owl is opening its wing, apparently ready to fly off. The subtle ‘bokashi’ technique applied to the outside of the concentric circles of its eye is so efficient that it looks completely real. The extremely narrow lines applied on its body and wings are just amazing!