Iris No 46 — 花菖蒲 No 46

The forty-sixth iris in Sugiura Kazutoshi's series was produced during a period of active artistic development, when the core elements of his mature technique — woodblock carving, silkscreen overprinting, and gold-leaf application — were being refined through repeated application to a single demanding subject. The hana-shōbu (Japanese garden iris) is a botanically complex flower: its three-lobed fall petals, three upright standards, and complex internal structure offer a printmaker endless compositional possibilities. Sugiura explored virtually all of them across his long series.