The full title of this beautiful ink-on-paper woodcut is 'Little Egret, Standing on One Leg in the Rain at Night'. Originally from Kanazawa, Ohara Matao (1877-1945) studied in Tokyo in the 1890s under the artist Suzuki Koson. Matao later adopted his teacher's surname (a Japanese sign of graduation) and began specializing in woodcuts, most of his subjects chosen from nature. He particularly loved birds, and he designed over 450 wood-carved prints of various birds. Koson changed his name after 1910 to Shoson, and later to Hoson.