Rankafu : orchid print album : masterpieces of Japanese woodblock prints of orchids /
This book tells the story of banker Shotaro Kaga and orchid grower Kenkichi Goto whose pioneering orchid breeding program in the early 20th century started a horticultural craze in Japan that continues to this day. To illustrate the beauty of his plants Kaga turned to gifted watercolourist Zuigetsu...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Richmond, Surrey, UK :
Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
[2018]
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Table of Contents:
- Foreword / Phillip Cribb
- Introduction : aims of the book and an overview of the story behind the prints
- Shotaro Kaga : an early life close to nature
- Shotaro Kaga's life-altering foreign travels
- Building the Oyamazaki Villa and orchid greenhouses, and learning to grow, flower, and hybridise orchids by trial and error (1911-1932)
- Bringing art to the Villa : Zuigetsu Ikeda is hired and trained as resident artist, producing hundreds of watercolour paintings of orchids grown and flowered at the Villa
- Woodblock printing and the production of the Rankafu print set
- The Rankafu prints : a summary of the prints with updated orchid species and hybrid names
- A post-war postscript : the end of an era by 1967 and the Zuigetsu Ikeda watercolours revealed in 1995
- A 21st-century postscript : the remarkable discovery of twelve sets of surviving Rankafu woodblocks, the just-in-time Rankafu reprinting, and an end of an artistic era.