The Iris Season

The Iris Season belongs to the kacho-e (bird-and-flower) tradition that Kawanishi periodically returned to alongside his urban Kobe subjects. Irises—either kakitsubata or shobu varieties—bloom in late spring and early summer in Japan, traditionally associated with the Tango no Sekku festival and frequently depicted in classical Rinpa screen painting. Kawanishi's sosaku-hanga interpretation simplifies the flowers into broad, flat color planes carved from cherry blocks, with the artist designing, carving and printing each impression himself in the movement's autographic ethos. His palette draws on saturated indigos, violets and chrome yellows derived from the Fauvist sources he absorbed alongside Japanese tradition. The print shares the decorative density of his Kobe series while substituting natural ornament for the harbor and hillside subjects he is best known for, demonstrating the breadth of subject matter pursued by sosaku-hanga artists of the interwar period.