Camelia

Tsubaki, the camellia, is a winter-blooming flower with long-standing associations in Japanese aesthetics, including the abrupt fall of its whole bloom rather than petal-by-petal scattering, an image historically linked to samurai mortality. The print may depict a single flower, a sprig, or a woman wearing or holding camellia. Mezzotint allows Saito to model the petal volume through soft tonal gradient, a different approach from the flat color planes and clear contour of woodblock kacho-e by artists such as Ohara Koson. The technique foregrounds mass and shadow over outline. Saito's flower subjects, like his portraits, depend on the patient preparation of the rocked plate and selective burnishing; the labor of the medium is visible in the consistency of the dark grounds against which the bloom is set.