Camelias

Dated 1941, Kotozuka's print of camellias (tsubaki) engages with one of Japan's most beloved and symbolically loaded winter flowers. The camellia blooms through the coldest months, its full, unscented blossoms falling whole rather than petal by petal — a quality that gave it both samurai associations (the quick, whole fall of the flower echoing death in battle) and Buddhist resonance (the clean end). Kotozuka renders the flower with the botanical attentiveness characteristic of his work with natural subjects.