Coleus

As the ninth and final design in Taisui's coleus series, this print represents the culmination of an unusually thorough botanical examination. By the ninth variant, Taisui would have exhausted the most obvious compositional readings of the subject — frontal single leaves, clusters in depth, tip-down or stem-up orientations — potentially arriving at more oblique or formally experimental arrangements. The series as a whole is notable for its scope: nine prints on a single non-flowering plant is without close parallel in the [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) catalog. This final design, printed by the Sakai-Kawaguchi atelier, maintains the refined craftsmanship of the preceding prints and closes a body of work that prioritizes pure form and color over the narrative or seasonal associations typical of the genre.