Flowering Plants and Vegetables of the Four Seasons

Flowering Plants and Vegetables of the Four Seasons

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

These screens feature a profusion of flowering plants and vegetables painted with “boneless” brushwork (without outlines) in mineral colors and ink on a gold-leaf ground. They were created by an eighteenth-century follower of the Rinpa style established by Tawaraya Sōtatsu (ca. 1570–ca. 1640). Flowers and flowering grasses of the four seasons, including cotton roses, dandelions, irises, violets, and wild wisteria, are depicted on the right screen; vegetables—such as carrots, corn, eggplants, millet, peas, radishes, and turnips—predominate on the left. Thirty-four flowering plants and thirty-two vegetables have been identified. The broad-leafed vegetation on the left creates a bold visual contrast to the delicate flora on the companion screen. During the eighteenth century, Chinese pharmacology and Western botany drew the attention of Japanese intellectuals not only to plants linked to classical literary traditions but also to domestic flowers and vegetables in their natural environs.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Flowering Plants and Vegetables of the Four SeasonsFlowering Plants and Vegetables of the Four SeasonsFlowering Plants and Vegetables of the Four SeasonsFlowering Plants and Vegetables of the Four SeasonsFlowering Plants and Vegetables of the Four Seasons

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.