Rose No 9

The ninth rose in Sugiura Kazutoshi's numbered series applies his distinctive layered printmaking process to a flower with Western rather than Japanese botanical origins — though the rose (bara) has been cultivated in Japan since the Meiji period and acquired its own Japanese aesthetic meanings. The rose's spiral petal arrangement and the complex geometry of its fully opened bloom provide Sugiura with a different formal problem than the iris or peony, and his silkscreen-woodblock-gold-leaf combination responds accordingly. The higher-numbered rose entries suggest he returned to the subject multiple times over his career.