Shobu – iris flowers for health and strength. A favourite kimono motif, too.
Ikimono moves into February with a new banner image, taken from a vintage silk kimono bolt from mid-Showa. This features a silvery lilac garden landscape. Amongst its auspicious flowers, the charming irises are traditionally thought to ward off evil spirits and bring the wearer good health.
The Japanese show a natural ability to interpret the charm of plants and flowers in order to express their joys and pains. Their communion with nature manifests itself through an elaborate symbolism, and plants are associated with moving thoughts and the universal forms of life.
The design elements of this vintage silk epitomises the Japanese love of nature and features plants from all season, emphasizing the lifecycle. Chrysanthemum and Hagi, or bush clover, also appear in the “sliver of silk” chosen for the shop banner. These are associated with the Autumn, whilst May is the month for Iris to bloom. It is this flower that is highlighted in this month’s blog:
Shobu - iris flowers for health and strength
The iris is often shown in a realistic manner in Japanese art. There is deep reverence for this flower, which has great cultural significance for the Japanese as a reminder of one of the most celebrated romances in their literature.
In a famous passage in the 10th century Tales of Ise, the hero Ariwara no Narihira comes to a place in Mikawa province noted for its eightfold bridge and irises. A nobleman exiled from the court and sent to the provinces, he was challenged by his compatriots to write a haiku based on syllables which form one of the Japanese words for this flower: kakitsubata
Each of the lines was to begin with one of the sounds of the Japanese word for iris. The poem that he wrote was to the love he had left at home:
I have a beloved wife,
Familiar as the skirt
of a well-worn robe,
And so this distant journeying
Fills my heart with grief.
Finally, more snippets on the role the iris plays, or had played, in Japan:
· The iris is ascribed with the power to ward off evil spirits and to prevent illness and epidemics.
· Japanese folk legends prescribed putting irises into pillows to ensure good health and imbibing drink made from irises to ward off sickness.
· Boys were encouraged to eat irises to make their spirits brave.
· The iris also symbolizes the martial strength a the samurai. This derives from the sword shape of the leaves.
· An iris pattern was very popular in the textiles used for 19th-century kimono patterns.
The iris remains an important visual symbol and is seen everywhere in Japan, from ads, to furniture, to textiles.
Please take a look at some of the yukata cotton designs in the Ikimono store on Etsy:
www.etsy.com/shop/ikimono
