JAPANESE IRIS
MAY - EARLY JUNE JAPANESE NAME: KAKITSUBATA
While in English, the term iris is a widely used umbrella term for the iris flower, it’s a different story in Japan. The admiration for the iris is so deeply ingrained, and the study of the iris so rich, you could write a novella on the names given to this beautiful, droopy-petalled flower.
Would an iris by any other name smell so sweet? Japanese iris as a term encompasses three key species of irises, both cultivated and wild; there’s the hanashōbu (iris ensata), the ayame (iris sanguinea), and the kakitsubata (iris laevigata).
Each of the three iris varieties has a slightly different personality. The ayame is the wild one. It thrives in dry soil, flowering from early May to mid-June. The kakitsubata prefers wetter, more cultivated conditions and is in its prime in the second half of May. Finally, hanashōbu blooms last, in June, and like the kakitsubata, it loves moist soil and to be doted upon. This last species is the most well known of the three.
Of these three main types of Japanese iris, it’s the kakitsubata (‘rabbit-ear iris’ in English) that seems to have captured the hearts of the nation’s artists, playing the role of muse for poems, stories and paintings for centuries. Nezu Museum in Tokyo’s elegant neighbourhood of Aoyama is where you can see the peak creative legacy of this revered flower.
A series of golden folding screens, ‘Kakitsubata-zu’ by Ogata Kōrin (1658-1716), is a national treasure and considered the world’s most famous iris painting.
“In Japan, people have been composing waka poems and painting pictures of the four seasons since ancient times,” says Nezu Museum’s Kayoko Muraoka. Nezu Museum is an excellent place to see the artistic influence of the flower on Japanese culture. “Visitors can enjoy the artworks of the four seasons that our ancestors cherished, and in the garden, they can enjoy the scenery itself,” says Muraoka.
“I hope that by enjoying the artworks in the exhibition room and the scenery itself in the garden, visitors will gain a deeper understanding of the aesthetic sense of Japanese culture and appreciate the artworks more deeply.”