Iris Garden

An oban triptych at the Art Institute of Chicago dating to circa 1781 to 1789, this color woodblock print depicts women in an iris garden. Iris (hanashobu) gardens were one of Edo's most celebrated seasonal attractions in the early summer fifth month, with major garden sites at Horikiri and at temples around the city drawing visitors to witness the elaborate plantings of variegated iris in full bloom. The iris-viewing tradition formalized the experience of the bloom into a fashionable outing equivalent to the spring hanami and autumn moon viewings. Shuncho's triptych develops the subject across three oban sheets in the panoramic horizontal format that was the Tenmei era's signature vehicle for fashionable gatherings, integrating the women in their summer kimono with the formal beds of blossoming iris. The work is among the most visually saturated and seasonally specific of Shuncho's surviving triptychs and exemplifies the integration of bijin-ga with meisho-e (famous-place picture) sensibility that defined his mature practice.