At the begin­ning of the 20th cen­tury, a unique artist­ic fusion emerged in Japan. As West­ern garden flowers – such as tulips, pan­sies, and roses – became increas­ingly pop­u­lar in Japan­ese soci­ety, the mas­ter of wood­b­lock print­ing, Tanigami Kon­an 谷上廣南 (1879–1928), cap­tured this botan­ic­al inva­sion in a breath­tak­ing way.

The “Pictorial Book of Western Flowers”

His mas­ter­piece, Seiyō Sōka Zufu 西洋草花図譜 (Pictori­al Book of West­ern Flowers), pub­lished around 1917, is a five-volume cel­eb­ra­tion of col­or. Unlike earli­er botan­ic­al works that were often strictly sci­entif­ic and medi­cin­al, Konan’s wood­b­lock prints are pure, unadul­ter­ated aes­thet­ics. They were cre­ated for an audi­ence that was begin­ning to fall in love with the exot­ic flora of the West.

Mastery of the Woodblock

Kon­an used the tra­di­tion­al Moku-hanga tech­nique (multi-colored wood­b­lock print­ing) to per­fec­tion. Each illus­tra­tion is a “Nishiki‑e” – a “bro­cade pic­ture” – where every single col­or requires its own hand-carved block. The res­ults are images of incred­ible depth and lumin­os­ity. The way he lay­ers the pig­ments gives the petals a vel­vet-like tex­ture that a cop­per­plate engrav­ing could nev­er achieve.

The Secret of Oyster Shells: The Radiance of Gofun

In the wood­b­lock prints of Tanigami Kon­an – par­tic­u­larly in his mas­ter­piece Seiyō Sōka Zufu (1917–1920) – there is a white that is more than just a col­or. It has a vel­vety, almost haptic tex­ture that ordin­ary pig­ments can­not achieve. The secret behind this radi­ance is Gofun.

Art from the Sea

Gofun is a tra­di­tion­al Japan­ese pig­ment made from finely ground, weathered oyster shells. For cen­tur­ies, it has been the “white gold” of Japan­ese art. To cre­ate it, the shells are aged for years before being crushed into a del­ic­ate powder and mixed with nikawa (anim­al hide glue).

A Tactile Experience

Unlike West­ern lead white, Gofun has a dis­tinct phys­ic­al pres­ence. When applied to the wood­b­lock, it cre­ates a slightly raised sur­face. Kon­an used this to give white petals a three-dimen­sion­al qual­ity. This “Oyster Shell White” reflects light in a soft, dif­fused way – lend­ing the images a bril­liance that feels almost alive.

It is this alchemy – the com­bin­a­tion of the sea’s cal­ci­um, the forest’s wood, and the artist’s hand – that makes these works time­less treas­ures.

Text: Ger­hard Groebe | Images: Pub­lic domain

Images from Seiyō Sōka Zufu, 1917:

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