Sannojō was a keen gardener and plant breeder who published a number of books about garden plants. In 1699 he published one of the first Japanese horticultural picture books. It was entitled Kusabana-e Zenshū (or Sōka-e Zenshū) (i.e., Collection of Flower Pictures). The book’s 109 pages of plant pictures are shown in this gallery. Click on a picture to enlarge it. Sannojō drew the shapes of his plant subjects in a true-to-life way but colored them only in shades of gray because full-color printing was not possible at that time in Japan. Some of the plant names given by Sannojō are no longer used which makes their identification difficult.
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