Dokudami No XXXII

Dokudami No XXXII presents a botanical study of Houttuynia cordata, the low-growing herb known in Japanese as dokudami, recognizable by its heart-shaped leaves and the four white bracts that frame a yellow central spike. The Roman numeral designation indicates the print belongs to an extended serial investigation of a single plant subject, a format that allowed Ikeda to explore variations in posture, season, and compositional framing across dozens of sheets. Such serial botanical work draws on the honzogaku natural-history illustration tradition while applying shin-hanga production methods: layered nishiki-e color blocks, fine keyblock outlines registering the leaf veining, and bokashi gradations suggesting damp shade where dokudami typically grows along walls and at the bases of fences. Within Ikeda's broader kacho-e output — herons in shallow water, songbirds on plum branches, carp among autumn leaves — the dokudami series occupies a quieter, more taxonomic register, treating an unglamorous medicinal weed with the same compositional care usually reserved for camellias or peonies, and reflecting the late shin-hanga interest in everyday flora as legitimate subject matter.