Irises

Departing from the yakusha-e portraiture for which he is best known, Kokei here turns to kacho-e, the classical genre of flowers and birds. Irises — whether the purple kakitsubata or the paler ayame — carry layered associations in Japanese art: they are the subject of a celebrated episode in the tenth-century Ise Monogatari and appear throughout the decorative arts, from Rinpa screen painting to Meiji lacquerware. In the woodblock medium, rendering iris petals requires precise registration across multiple color blocks to achieve the deep violet gradations and the papery translucency of the falls. Kokei likely employed fine washi or a similarly receptive paper stock and used flat pigment layers modulated by subtle bokashi to capture both the structural geometry of the bloom and the soft, irregular edges of living petals. The subject offers the artist a compositional challenge distinct from portraiture: organizing botanical form into a satisfying plane without the organizing anchor of a human figure.