Iris No 105 — 花菖蒲 No 105

The one hundred and fifth iris by Sugiura Kazutoshi continues his sustained exploration of the hana-shōbu across more than one hundred and sixty numbered works, each one a distinct solution to the formal challenge of representing this deeply Japanese flower. At this stage of the series Sugiura's technical mastery of the layered woodblock-silkscreen-gold-leaf process is complete, and the compositions show an increasing willingness to let individual passages of color become quite abstract — areas of the print where pigment layers produce effects that exceed the descriptive needs of botanical representation.