Chrysanthemum presentation

PUBLISHED TITLES

THE BOTANICAL SERIES Berries Victoria Dickenson In this delightful, surprising and occasionally juicy exploration, Victoria Dickenson traces the humble berry’s journey across cultures and through centuries with humour and passion.

208 pp 100 illus, 90 colour 9781789141931 £16

Victoria Dickenson is Adjunct Professor at McGill University Library, Montreal and a devoted amateur botanist.

Chrysanthemum Twigs Way Twigs Way follows the chrysanthemum through philosophy , art, literature and death, recounting the stories of the people who became captivated by this extraordinary flower.

216 pp 100 colour illus 9781789142051 £16

ALL HB, ≈ 100 ILLUS, 80 COLOUR, £16

Twigs Way is a lecturer, writer and speaker who has worked in historic landscapes and gardens for more than thirty years.

FROM REAKTION BOOKS

Contents y

Introduction 7 one The Honourable and Imperial Flower 21 two Smuggling Tea and Chrysanthemums 47 three Gathering the Harvest in Societies and Shows 72 four In Peace and in War 90 ďŹ ve An Impression of Chrysanthemums 115 six A Literary Bouquet 145 seven Meaningful and Useful: A Plethora of Chrysanthemums 165 Timeline 193 References 195 Further Reading 201 Associations and Websites 202 Acknowledgements 204 Photo Acknowledgements 205 Index 207

Chrysanthemum ‘Ticonderoga’.

Distinctive florets on a perfect chrysanthemum head, from G. Seveyrens and P. de Longpre, Revue horticole (1890).

overleaf: The perfection that can be obtained by a single bloom.

Introduction

Autumnal crimson and yellow: P. de Pannemaeker, ‘Chrysanthèmes d’automne’, chromolithograph from Jean Linden’s L’Illustration horticole (1886).

of cultivars ‘is very unclear’ and blamed multiple cultivars for a tendency to introduce a ‘wild card’ every so often, seized upon by breeders to try and improve hardiness or encourage a distinctive petal shape. Despite this proliferation, almost all varieties of the socalled Chinese and Japanese chrysanthemum beloved of the florist 11

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Claude Monet, Chrysanthemums, 1882, oil on canvas. The vase and chrysanthemums look like pink and white clouds.

and show breeder are blended hybrids or other forms derived from Chrysanthemum x morifolium and Chrysanthemum indicum, both natives of eastern Asia. Although it was not until they had crossed continents with the aid of Victorian and Edwardian plant hunters that they were actually introduced to each other. Indeed in one of the first books on the chrysanthemum, the nineteenth-century breeder and nurseryman John Salter noted that 12

The Honourable and Imperial Flower

Tableaux and figures of chrysanthemums appear in both Chinese and Japanese flower festivals, such as the Ujima Jinja Chrysanthemum Festival, 2008.

what is defined as a ‘county-level city’; it houses the Tongxiang World Trade Centre, which has encouraged and funded this modern fes­ tival in order to attract both trade and tourism to the area. Hángbáijú, a variety of chrysanthemum-flower tea, is said to originate from Tongxiang and is served at the festival.

Although the chrysanthemum itself originates in China, the concept of the chrysanthemum festival has a longer-documented history in Japan, where the plant was adopted by the eighth century, with the first imperial chrysanthemum show thought to have been held in ad 910. Flower festivals are an important part of Japanese culture as regards marking the phases of the year: starting with the Plum Blossom Festival in February and March and followed by the famous Cherry Blossom Festival (Sakura) and the Pink Moss Festivals – the last best seen at the Fuji Shibazakura Festival (near Mount Fuji) in late spring/early summer. Modern chrysanthemum festivals are spread throughout Japan, including the Shorinzan Chrysanthemum Show at the temple Daruma-ji, Takasaki City; the Bunkyo Festival at Yushima Tenjin Shrine, Tokyo; and the Okayama Castle Festival in Okayama Prefecture. In addition to the exhibitions of individual 25

Torii Kiyonaga, A Young Woman with a Dog, Edo Period, c. 1790–91, polychrome woodblock print; ink and colour on paper.

The Honourable and Imperial Flower

of old Japan with elaborately coiffured geishas and a man flicking insects (or heat?) away from the flowers in a show marking the ninth-month festival of chrysanthemums. The symbol of the chrysanthemum as marking longevity of body and mind is a perfect symbol for Katsushika Hokusai’s own statement on art and life: From the age of six, I had a passion for copying the form of things and since the age of fifty I have published many drawings, yet of all I drew by my seventieth year there is nothing worth taking into account. At seventy-three years I partly understood the structure of animals, birds, insects and fishes, and the life of grasses and plants. And so, at eighty-six I shall progress further; at ninety I shall even further penetrate their secret meaning, and by one hundred I shall perhaps truly have reached the level of the marvellous and divine. When I am one hundred and ten, each dot, each line will possess a life of its own.5

Katsushika Hokusai, Sparrows and Chrysanthemums, c. 1825, polychrome woodblock print; ink and colour on paper.

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Born slightly later than Hokusai, and considered by many as the last great master of ukiyo-e art is Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858).

Hiroshige combined duties as a fire-warden for the Yayosu Quay area (a duty handed down from his father) with work as an artist and was extremely prolific, producing thousands of pieces, although he never achieved financial success. Concentrating on depictions of flowers and birds, Hiroshige is thought to have been influenced by Hokusai’s ‘Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji’, producing his own series ‘The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō’ and ‘The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō’. His works included many depicting the chrysanthemum, plum blossom and iris, as well as landscapes and the seasons. In 1856 Hiroshige became a Buddhist monk and retired from the world, dying aged 62 during the great Edo cholera epidemic of 1858 (although his actual cause of death is unknown). He was buried in a Zen Buddhist temple in Asakusa, concluding his life with the poem:

Utagawa Hiroshige, Chrysanthemums in Fan-shaped Design, 1840s, polychrome woodblock print; ink and colour on paper.

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The Honourable and Imperial Flower

This modern Chrysanthemum rubellum commemorates its ancient past in its name, ‘Emperor of China’.

cleansing to prepare for future dangers: it stands aptly at the changing of the seasons, when both physical and metaphysical hazards may occur – linked not only with the hard winter months to come but simply with any kind of major change. The symbolism of climbing a hill or mountain is often part of the celebrations as it evokes both climbing away from danger and making one’s way through future trials. The summit of the hill and the remembrance of ancestors may be equated in the traditional poem ‘Double Ninth, Remembering My Shandong Brothers’ by the eighth-century Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei (699–761), who depicts the brothers wearing the red zhuyu (Cornus officinalis or Asiatic Dogwood), which is associated with the chrysanthemum on the day of the Double Ninth as they both protect against illness and hazard.

As a lonely stranger in a foreign land, At every holiday my homesickness increases.

Far away, I know my brothers have reached the peak; They are wearing the zhuyu, but one is not present.

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The beauty and simplicity of the chrysanthemum symbol, depicted on a 17th-century Edo Period Japanese porcelain (Hizen ware) jar.

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Introduction

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Smuggling Tea and Chrysanthemums

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