by CHRYSANTHEMUM SCROLL
Scroll (598 x 15,210 mm.), backed with modern paper, inner front endpaper of silver-flecked paper, outer side covered with silk brocade, manuscript paper label (frayed & partly illegible) on outside: “Kikkadan shiki…Kōshaku Takatsukasa ke zō” 菊花壇図式…公爵鷹司家蔵 (“Illustrations of Various Styles of Pruned Chrysanthemums…from the Duke of Takatsukasa Family”), wooden core roller. [Japan: early Meiji].
The chrysanthemum came from China to Japan as a medicinal plant in the Nara period (710-93) and soon became revered in Japanese culture as a symbol of longevity and rejuvenation. From the Kamakura period (1192-1333) to this day, the chrysanthemum has been the emblem of the royal family and the Imperial or National Seal of Japan is called the Chrysanthemum Seal (菊紋, kikumon). In Japan, the flower has been the subject of selective breeding, precise cultivation, complex grafting, and creative pruning, allowing, for example, one plant to bear several hundred flowers.
An autumnal flower, the chrysanthemum has been the subject of many celebratory and elaborately staged exhibitions called Kikkadan-ten (菊花壇展), traditionally taking place in November at the gardens of aristocrats and members of the imperial family. These exhibitions, typically set on a central stage with two wings covered by a transparent roof to allow natural illumination of the displays, demonstrated Japanese horticulturalists’ extremely complex grafting techniques and their skills in displaying large groups of brilliantly colorful chrysanthemums in different and highly creative forms.
Our beautiful scroll contains 20 displays of chrysanthemums of varying hues and formations, all set on a formal stage with skylights, banners, and decorations. Each display or scene is labelled with a fanciful title. Individual varities of the flower are labelled with tags. The illustrated displays include arrangements created to resemble a multi-panelled silk screen, a hill or mountain of chrysanthemums, a staircase, a field of flowers, an orchard, towers (several with three tiers resembling a pagoda), a large round fan, a group of spheres, a ship composed of the flowers floating on a garden pond, etc.
Each display has been portrayed extremely skillfully by the artist, all in rich and varied pigments. Our description does not do justice to the great beauty of this scroll.
PROVENANCE: The Takatsukasa aristocratic family, founded in the 13th century, was a branch of the Fujiwara clan.
In fine condition, preserved in an old wooden box. Some marginal worming. (Inventory #: 10900)
The chrysanthemum came from China to Japan as a medicinal plant in the Nara period (710-93) and soon became revered in Japanese culture as a symbol of longevity and rejuvenation. From the Kamakura period (1192-1333) to this day, the chrysanthemum has been the emblem of the royal family and the Imperial or National Seal of Japan is called the Chrysanthemum Seal (菊紋, kikumon). In Japan, the flower has been the subject of selective breeding, precise cultivation, complex grafting, and creative pruning, allowing, for example, one plant to bear several hundred flowers.
An autumnal flower, the chrysanthemum has been the subject of many celebratory and elaborately staged exhibitions called Kikkadan-ten (菊花壇展), traditionally taking place in November at the gardens of aristocrats and members of the imperial family. These exhibitions, typically set on a central stage with two wings covered by a transparent roof to allow natural illumination of the displays, demonstrated Japanese horticulturalists’ extremely complex grafting techniques and their skills in displaying large groups of brilliantly colorful chrysanthemums in different and highly creative forms.
Our beautiful scroll contains 20 displays of chrysanthemums of varying hues and formations, all set on a formal stage with skylights, banners, and decorations. Each display or scene is labelled with a fanciful title. Individual varities of the flower are labelled with tags. The illustrated displays include arrangements created to resemble a multi-panelled silk screen, a hill or mountain of chrysanthemums, a staircase, a field of flowers, an orchard, towers (several with three tiers resembling a pagoda), a large round fan, a group of spheres, a ship composed of the flowers floating on a garden pond, etc.
Each display has been portrayed extremely skillfully by the artist, all in rich and varied pigments. Our description does not do justice to the great beauty of this scroll.
PROVENANCE: The Takatsukasa aristocratic family, founded in the 13th century, was a branch of the Fujiwara clan.
In fine condition, preserved in an old wooden box. Some marginal worming. (Inventory #: 10900)
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