Watanabe Shotei Birds and Flowers

Watanabe Shotei also Watanabe Seitei (1852-1918) was a Japanese woodblock printer associated with the sosaku hanga "creative prints" movement.

Watanabe Seitei s beautiful bird and flower prints are full of symbolic meaning, they are not just pretty decorations.

He was one of the first Nihonga artist to visit Europe, where he joined the workshop of Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891) for the Paris World Exhibition of 1878 in Paris and being awarded a medal. He blended Western realism with the delicate colors and washes of the Kikuchi Yosai school, introducing a new approach to kacho-ga - bird-and-flower painting.

Nihonga in the narrow sense, refers to art based on traditional Japanese techniques and styles, such as calligraphy and hand-painted painting, rather than oil painting.

Watanabe Shotei maintained a prodigious output of paintings and illustrations, producing three outstanding albums: Seitei kacho gafu (Picture album of Seiteis bird and flower), 1890-91; Kacho gafu (Bird and flower album), 1903; and the last series published in 1916 also entitled Seitei kacho gafu. Many prints were later re-issued psthumously.