Tiger Lily

The tiger lily — kasagarashi (Lilium lancifolium) — is one of Japan's most vivid native wildflowers, its recurved orange petals and prominent dark spots unmistakable in summer woodlands and roadsides. Asano's rendering applies his observational precision to a botanical subject, capturing the flower's characteristic drooping head and the tension between its warm orange color and the dark surrounding foliage. The tiger lily's association with summer and with the wilder, more untamed aspects of the Japanese landscape distinguished it from the cultivated garden subjects that dominated much of his output.