This is one of many fine depictions of small birds on tree branches that Imamura Shiko made during his career. The bullfinch and the loquat branch are neatly balanced with the surrounding void space in a vertically long composition. Bullfinches feature in usokae, a Shinto ritual held annually in the new year at Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine in Fukuoka Prefecture and elsewhere. As the Japanese words for "bullfinch" and "lie" are homophones (both pronounced "uso"), the ritual dictates that lies told during the previous year can be forgiven by conferring them upon a wooden sculpture of a bullfinch, which is then presented to the gods. To be precise, it seems the bullfinch shown here may be a subspecies of bullfinch. That said, this loquat fruit doesn't seem to be fully ripe yet, suggesting the timing may be in spring rather than New Year's. Perhaps this picture was intended to bring good luck.
(YATSUYANAGI Sae)
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This is one of many fine depictions of small birds on tree branches that Imamura Shiko made during his career. The bullfinch and the loquat branch are neatly balanced with the surrounding void space in a vertically long composition. Bullfinches feature in usokae, a Shinto ritual held annually in the new year at Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine in Fukuoka Prefecture and elsewhere. As the Japanese words for "bullfinch" and "lie" are homophones (both pronounced "uso"), the ritual dictates that lies told during the previous year can be forgiven by conferring them upon a wooden sculpture of a bullfinch, which is then presented to the gods. To be precise, it seems the bullfinch shown here may be a subspecies of bullfinch. That said, this loquat fruit doesn't seem to be fully ripe yet, suggesting the timing may be in spring rather than New Year's. Perhaps this picture was intended to bring good luck.
(YATSUYANAGI Sae)