A World of Edo Art

The details of these flowers and plants are painted so accurately we can easily identify them centuries later. Their botanical accuracy reflects the Edo public's fascination with plant life. Gardening culture and nurseries flourished, plant vendors roamed the streets, and even tenements were lined with potted plants. Officials hosted competitions for plant breeders, where amateurs and professionals alike showed off new variations of camellias, peonies, and other flowers they had grafted to crowds of admirers. In springtime, the entire country flocked to cherry-blossom viewing parties to admire the short-lived beauty of their fragile blossoms.

In stark contrast to the realism of the flowers and plants, the gold leaf frequently applied behind them looks nothing like the earth or the sky, like a garden or a forest. Why did Edo artists painstakingly observe and reproduce the botanical details only to place them in a fantastical environment so unlike real life?