Iris No 163 — 花菖蒲 No 163

Among the final numbered entries in Sugiura Kazutoshi's iris series, the one hundred sixty-third composition represents nearly a lifetime's sustained engagement with a single botanical subject. The hana-shōbu at this late stage of the series has been pared to its essential character — the layered printing technique producing forms of great clarity despite their technical complexity, the gold-leaf application achieving a restraint that earlier entries sometimes lacked. Late-numbered entries in the series are among the most sought after by collectors, representing the full maturation of Sugiura's distinctive printmaking synthesis.