Shasei sōka moyō (Patterns of Flowers and Grasses from Life), Volume 2 (Ge)

Volume two (Ge, 下) of Shasei sōka moyō (Patterns of Flowers and Grasses Drawn from Life) completes the two-volume woodblock-printed design album issued in Kyoto in 1907 by the publisher Yamada Unsōdō, designed by Furuya Kōrin (1875-1910). The Rijksmuseum's copy (RP-P-2005-557B) was acquired alongside its companion first volume and is digitized via Wikimedia Commons. Where volume one tends to concentrate on flowering plants of spring and summer (peonies, irises, morning glories, water grasses), volume two extends the season into autumn and early winter motifs — chrysanthemums, susuki grass, bush clover, maple foliage, and the kerria rose — treated in Furuya's late-Meiji neo-Rinpa idiom of flat, stylized decorative pattern derived from naturalistic observation (shasei). The printing exploits the late-Meiji Kyoto technical repertoire of multi-block colour impression with metallic and mineral pigments and embossed (karazuri) backgrounds. Together the two volumes function as a unified pattern library aimed at the kimono, lacquer, and metalwork trades clustered around Kyoto's craft quarters, while also standing as a free-standing decorative-art object collected internationally.