Vines and Daffodils

Held in the Library of Congress and published in Tachibana Yasukuni's 1755 Ehon noyamagusa, this woodblock illustration pairs flowering vines with daffodils (suisen, Narcissus tazetta) in the kind of cross-seasonal compositional juxtaposition that the book occasionally employed to demonstrate the range of plant habits across its botanical compendium. Daffodils held particular significance in Japanese garden culture because of their unusually early bloom — sometimes appearing through late-winter snow on the Japan Sea coast where the species naturally clustered — and their association with the New Year and late-winter flower arrangements. The vines, depicted climbing across the page, provide a structural contrast to the more upright, clumping habit of the narcissus, allowing Yasukuni to demonstrate two distinct plant architectures within a single composition. The draftsmanship maintains the Kano-school brush conventions Yasukuni inherited from his father Morikuni, with confident outline drawing and careful tonal modulation through ink application. Ehon noyamagusa was published in Osaka in five volumes in 1755 and remained in continuous circulation for over a century, supplying motifs to artisans across the textile, ceramic, lacquer, and woodblock-print trades. The Library of Congress example is part of the substantial Japanese illustrated-book holding assembled by the LoC's Prints and Photographs Division.