Cosmos No 8

The eighth cosmos in Sugiura Kazutoshi's numbered series captures the kosumosu — a flower introduced to Japan from Mexico during the Meiji period and quickly adopted as an emblem of autumn — through his characteristic layered printing technique. The cosmos's feathery foliage and simple, open flower head offer Sugiura a compositional lightness that contrasts with the denser arrangements of his iris and peony series. The flower's Japanese name is borrowed directly from the Greek-derived cosmos, appropriate for a bloom that arrived in Japan from abroad and became thoroughly naturalized into Japanese autumn aesthetics.