Iris No 157 — 花菖蒲 No 157

The one hundred fifty-seventh iris in Sugiura Kazutoshi's series stands near the culmination of a long artistic project, the hana-shōbu now so thoroughly internalized as subject that the printmaker can approach each new composition with complete freedom — the botanical knowledge so embedded it need not be consciously consulted, the technical mastery so complete it operates below the threshold of deliberate choice. These late entries in the series have a quality of ease that contrasts with the more evident effort of the early numbers, as if the flower and the printmaker had finally reached a mutual understanding.