Iris Garden

"Iris Garden" (1904) places women within the spectacular setting of a Japanese iris garden — the carefully cultivated beds of Japanese iris (hanashobu) that bloomed in June, their purple and white flowers reflected in the shallow water channels that Japanese iris culture required. Famous iris gardens in Edo (at Horikiri, Yatsushiro, and similar locations) had been celebrated subjects in ukiyo-e since the Edo period, and Shuntei's 1904 rendering continues this tradition while placing contemporary Meiji women within the established scenic context.