Japonica, Bell Flowers, and Anemone

This 1755 woodblock illustration from Tachibana Yasukuni's Ehon noyamagusa, held in the Library of Congress, presents three flowering plants together — Japonica (likely Chaenomeles japonica, the flowering quince), bell flowers (kikyō or fūrin-sō, depending on the species depicted), and anemone — in the multi-specimen format that organized the book's seasonal compendium. The Japonica's blossoms, borne directly on the woody stem before the leaves fully emerge in spring, contrast with the campanulate (bell-shaped) form of the kikyō and the open, daisy-like radial symmetry of the anemone, allowing Yasukuni to demonstrate the range of floral architecture across these three garden subjects. The composition employs the Kano-school brush conventions Yasukuni inherited from his father Tachibana Morikuni, with confident outline drawing and tonal modeling through ink wash that conveys both the woody texture of the Japonica branches and the more delicate cellular structure of the bell-flower petals. Ehon noyamagusa was published in Osaka in five volumes in 1755 and circulated as one of the most influential Japanese botanical pattern books of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Library of Congress example is part of the substantial Japanese illustrated-book holding assembled by the LoC's Prints and Photographs Division.