Chōbunsai Eishi - A Long-Tailed Fowl (Onagadori), from the series Twelve Assorted Birds (Shochō jūnikin) - ca. 1791 - STICKER Vinyl Kiss-Cut Decal

A vertical ukiyo-e panel from the late 18th century shows three young women and a small boy gathered at a balcony rail, watching an Onagadori, the Japanese long-tailed fowl, sweep past in flight.

Visual Elements & Composition

The figures occupy the lower half of the panel: a standing woman in a patterned kimono points toward the bird, another woman holds a fan at the railing, a seated man wears a patterned robe, and a young child leans on the rail. The bird in flight rises through the open upper field, its trailing tail feathers setting a long diagonal line across the sheet. In the distance, Mount Fuji closes the landscape. The palette is restrained and traditional, built from pale cream, dusty mauve, salmon pink, ochre yellow and sage green. A kimono roundel pattern repeats across the clothing, and the column of characters 諸鳥十二會 marks the title of the series.

Meaning & Symbolism

Chōbunsai Eishi made this print for Twelve Assorted Birds (Shochō jūnikin), a series that turned bird life into an occasion for elegant genre scenes. The Onagadori, prized for its extraordinarily long tail, stands as the emblem of the series' attention to seasonal avian life. Pairing the bird with the figures on the balcony expresses the harmony between people and the natural world that Edo-period audiences valued, and Mount Fuji anchors the scene in the recognisable landscape of the capital's horizon.

Framing the Bird on Your Surfaces

A kiss-cut sticker is cut to the outline of its own artwork, so the bird, the figures and the mountain read as a single silhouette rather than a rectangle. The long tail of the Onagadori follows the cut line, letting the fowl rise cleanly off whatever surface it is placed on. Each piece carries the full composition of the 1791 print in miniature, a small window onto a balcony scene for collectors of Edo-period woodblock work.