Camellia

A camellia (tsubaki) rendered in Hodo's woodblock technique — one of winter's most beloved flowers in Japan, the tsubaki blooms when little else does, its glossy leaves and waxy petals creating a striking contrast with the grey or snow of the surrounding garden. The camellia falls as a whole flower rather than petal by petal, a quality associated in Japanese aesthetics with a certain fatalistic dignity. Hodo's treatment captures the flower's botanical precision within the decorative tradition of kachō-ga.