Morning Glories

Morning glories — the climbing vine whose trumpet-shaped flowers open with the summer dawn and close by midday — are depicted in this undated woodblock print with the close botanical attention of a kacho-e study. Kiyochika produced a number of flower studies alongside his more celebrated landscapes, and the morning glory was a plant with deep Edo-period associations: beloved by the Shitamachi working class who cultivated them in tiny urban gardens and celebrated in the annual Iriya Morning Glory Festival near Asakusa.