---

Original Number

---

15

---

ADDITIONAL NOTES FOR THIS DESIGN

---

Currently Documented Edition Signature and Seal Markings:

Edition I:	楽山作	Raku-zan Saku	+ Seal A
Edition II:	楽山篁子生	Raku-zan Kou-shi-sei	+ Seal F

[For illustration of seals listed by seal code letter, see the Seals article. For edition characteristics applicable to this series as a whole, see the Edition article.]

Design History:
This woodblock print was produced from an original painting on silk dating from the late 1920s whose current location is unknown. The indentification of this design as number 15 is original to Rakusan who published the print as the 15th design in his series of one hundred woodblock prints called 楽山花鳥畫譜, Rakuzan Kachou Gafu, lit. 'Rakusan's Flower and Bird Print Series'.

Edition I: The first print run of about two hundred copies of 15 was completed and the design was published in December 1929 in installment eight (of fifty). (The exact printing and publication dates are unknown since no copies of the installment eight delivery documents have yet been located.) 15 proved to be a very popular design, and at least two additional full print runs of edition I of 15 were produced before mid 1933 when the series was completed and edition I printing ceased. As a result, three quarters of all documented copies of 15 come from edition I printings, including the different example copies illustrated at top above and at below left.

15 is one of the most exceptional designs in this series. The order in which the designs were published varied significantly from the order in which they were created, and also from Rakusan's originally intended order of publication. No position in the sequence is more anomalous than that of 15. It was published in the middle of a subset of designs which bear seal G and the Raku-zan Kyo signature, and 15 would have been expected to share those same attribution markings. Instead 15 has seal A which otherwise first appears in this series with design 20 in February 1930. Rakusan also paired this seal with the Raku-zan Saku signature which otherwise first appears in this series with design 79 in August 1932, more than two years later. Unusually, Rakusan also arranged the signature and seal combination horizontally, reading right to left (instead of the typical vertical, top to bottom orientation).

15alt, a woodblock print of an alternate sketch of the same design subject was issued the month before the initial printing of 15 as a preview advertisement. It too is anomalous since it is the only composition in either the alternate or final series in which the birds are shown less than life size. Both 15alt and 15 are also unusual in being among only a very few designs in these series without a botanical element.

Edition II: 15 was reprinted in edition II between 1936 and 1941 in numbers at least equivalent to a full edition I print run. One quarter of all documented copies of 15 come from edition II, including the example copy below right. For edition II Rakusan returned to a vertical placement of the signature and seal combination, and to avoid overlapping the image of the bird he chose to offset the seal to the left of the signature line. The images of the pair of example copies below were taken at the same time and under the same lighting conditions. Although subtle, the other observable differences between the two editions are real.

Although no edition III reprintings of 15 are currently known, because of the popularity of this design, it is possible that copies from a small edition III print run of 15 remain to be discovered.

15 (edition I)	15 (edition II)

Copies in Public Collections:
Edition I: Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA; (1938) 10998 [illustrated online]

Edition II: Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, USA; [not illustrated online]

Species Illustrated:
15 is one of only three designs in this series which have no botanical element.

Red-crowned (Japanese) Crane, Grus japonensis, 丹頂(鶴), たんちょう(づる), タンチョウ(ヅル), tanchou (zuru), lit. 'red-cap(-crane)', is an iconic Japanese native. It can also be called simply 鶴, づる, ヅル, tsuru, which is also used as a general name for any crane. The Red-crowned Crane is very important in Japanese culture and has many other names. Rakusan shows an adult bird with two still-downy chicks. Because both parents look much alike and share parental duties, the adult could be either male or female.

Although 15 is among the most popular Rakusan designs, it is also the most frequently misidentified. Despite being clearly labeled as a crane in the title-caption, it is often mistakenly referred to as a 'stork', 'goose', or 'swan' by persons unfamiliar with written Japanese and/or birds. No doubt much of the confusion results from Rakusan's decision to illustrate all of the birds in this series at near life-size. A very large species such as the crane could only be accommodated within the available space by contorting the pose and by truncating portions of the bird.