Squirrel - Hishida Shunso

A delicate Nihonga study by Hishida Shunso, featuring a squirrel beneath large foliage rendered in the artist's signature soft-wash style.

Hishida Shunso was a central figure in the modernisation of Japanese painting during the Meiji period. As a student of Okakura Tenshin at the Tokyo Fine Arts School, he helped develop the Nihonga style, which sought to integrate Western techniques of light and atmosphere with traditional Japanese subjects and materials. This work displays the characteristic focus on natural observation that defined his later career.

The composition features a small squirrel positioned at the base of a large, leafy plant. Shunso avoids the heavy outlines typical of earlier traditional schools, opting instead for a technique known as morotai, or blurred style. This approach relies on subtle gradations of ink and pigment to suggest form and depth, rather than relying on sharp contours. The leaves are rendered with soft, overlapping washes of green, creating a sense of volume and texture that feels organic and quiet.

The squirrel itself is depicted with a simplified, elegant silhouette. Its presence provides a sense of scale and narrative interest, grounding the botanical elements in a specific moment of observation. The background remains largely unadorned, a common feature in Japanese painting that allows the viewer to focus on the interplay between the flora and the animal. The muted colour palette, dominated by earthy tones and soft greens, reflects the artist's interest in capturing the atmospheric quality of the natural world. This print captures the essence of Shunso's contribution to Japanese art, demonstrating his ability to balance decorative sensibility with a keen eye for the nuances of nature. It is a representative example of the Kacho-ga tradition, which focuses on the beauty of birds, flowers, and small creatures within their environment.