Horikiri Iris Garden (Horikiri no Hanashobu), No. 64 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo
The village of Horikiri was known for producing flowers for the Edo market. While the gardeners of Horikiri grew a year-round variety of flowers, the fame of the place derived from the flower represented here, a type of iris known as hanashobu that was ideally suited to the area's swampy land. In the immediate foreground are three carefully detailed specimens. In the distance, sightseers from Edo may be seen admiring the blossoms. Hiroshige noted that so many lovely women from Edo came to view the blossoms that it was difficult to distinguish which were the real flowers.
- Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando), Japanese, 1797-1858
- Medium: Woodblock print
- Place Made: Japan
- Dates: 5th month of 1857
- Period: Edo Period, Ansei Era
- Dimensions: Sheet: 14 3/16 x 9 5/16 in. (36.1 x 23.6 cm) Image: 13 1/4 x 8 3/4 in. (33.7 x 22.3 cm) (show scale)
- Markings: No publisher's seal visible, probably lost when left margin was trimmed.
- Signature: Hiroshige-ga
- Collections:Asian Art
- Museum Location:
This item is not on view - Accession Number: 30.1478.64
- Credit Line: Gift of Anna Ferris
- Rights Statement: No known copyright restrictions
- Caption: Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando) (Japanese, 1797-1858). Horikiri Iris Garden (Horikiri no Hanashobu), No. 64 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 5th month of 1857. Woodblock print, Sheet: 14 3/16 x 9 5/16 in. (36.1 x 23.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Anna Ferris, 30.1478.64
- Image: overall, 30.1478.64_large_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
- Catalogue Description: In the village of Horikiri in suburban Edo, gardeners grew a year-round variety of flowers and were particularly famous for the iris shown here, "hanashobu," well suited to this swampy land. In this print Hiroshige has shown three, almost-life-size, detailed specimens of the nineteenth-century hanashobu hybrids and in the distance, sightseers from Edo are admiring the blossoms. In the 1870's the cultivation of hanashobu had begun to spread rapidly in Europe and America and the developed into a booming export market for the gardeners of Horikiri. The Horikiri plantations began to wane in the 1920's and eventually turned over to wartime food production. After the war, one of them was revived and is now a public park, particularly popular in May when the flowers are in bloom.
- Record Completeness: Best (88%)



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