Irises at Horikiri (Horikiri no hanashobu), from the series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)"
Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797-1858)
1857
- Medium
- Color woodblock print; oban
- Classification
- Culture
- Japan
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harold G. Henderson
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The suburb of Horikiri was famous for its marshy land and flower cultivation, and the hanashōbu iris seen here was its most well-known product. Hanashōbu irises were popular not only in Edo (now Tokyo) but also in the West: German botanist and physician Philipp von Siebold brought them to Europe in the 1850s. Popular images like this one made the flower a symbol of Japan. The printer used glorious purples and delicate gradation to depict the flowers in this print, considered an iconic representation of nature in Japanese art. This version is a well-preserved first edition of the design.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
