Sessai Hattori (b.1807) has a cluster of botanical illustrations in Kew's current exhibition ,
Flora Japonica, in the Shirley Sherwood gallery. Photos not permitted, but there's one work in particular I'd love to show you - a big green citrus fruit in two sections (as if pages in a book) - on the left, the cross section, overlapped by a bit of the whole fruit, the rest of which fills the page on the right...so un-fussy, and so beautifully done. So graphic; stunning.
The internet provides a very few
images of Sessai Hattori's work, published in books in the middle of the 19th century -
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Another highlight of the exhibition, for me, was a huge print of enormous leaves, rather like gunnera, made by Dr
Tomitaro Makino (1863-1957). He used the sap of the plant to print with the leaves, and added a calligraphic inscription.
Among his smaller works is "Nerium oleander" -
Many more artists are represented, their works shown in the west for the first time. The exhibition runs until 5 March.
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