◎「Wild Duck in Snow」（Signed "Hiroshige hitsu" with artist's seal reading "Jufuku"/Important Art Object)

◎Although lacking a publisher's seal, "Wild Duck in Snow" is probably one of a group of about twenty-five large tanzaku bird- and-flower prints published by Jakurindo between 1832 and 1834, the time when Hiroshige's style for bird-and-flower designs reached full maturity. The set has many superior designs, well composed, employing a firm brush line and replete with Hiroshige's unique lyricism.

This work is masterfully composed, so that the reeds projecting from the upper right, the downward diagonal of the duck in the center, and the reversed diagonal of the snow-laden bank at the bottom are all related into a stable S form. Hiroshige achieved spatial depth by thrusting one reed downward so that it crosses in front of the duck. The artist has paid minute attention to detail, using outline on the reed in the foreground but carefully abstaining from the use of such definitive line in the reeds at upper right.

The poem reads:

The wild duck calls,

The wind blows

Over the surface of the water.

This verse, written by Sugisaku Hyakumei, active in the 1770's and 1780's, is included in "Winter" section of the anthology Five Hundred Titles of Haikai by Past Masters.