Discussion

Eggplant (Solanum melongena)

Eggplant is a member of the nightshade family. It is grown worldwide for its edible fruit. Like the cucumber, eggplant is a fruit that is usually treated like a vegetable. It is often eaten cooked. China and India combined account for about 87% of the world's production of eggplants.

This photo gives another look at the leaves.

An eggplant flower.

The seeds are tiny. That is a penny that the scoop is resting on.

Eggplants come in a variety of colors and shapes, though most are elongated like fat bananas and purple. The image below is from the Japanese Seikei Zusetsu agricultural encyclopedia, published in 1804.

Artwork

Itō Jakuchū (1716 – 1800) 

Jakuchū was an eccentric painter in the Edo period not associated with any school, though he did have early training in the Kanō school. He was known for his meticulous attention to detail and preferred to paint from life. Chickens and roosters were his favorite subjects. in 1792, he painted an emaki, a long scroll, titled Saichūfu (Vegetable and Insects). This a detail of a small segment of it with an eggplant in the center. I'm not sure whether the long green object in the left background is a cucumber or not.

Eiichi Kotozuka (1906 – 1981)

Kotozuka is not a classical Japanese artist, but he did do an eggplant picture. He was prominent in the sōsaku-hanga movement. Instead of a team producing hanga (woodblock prints)––artist, carver, inker/printer, etc.––one person, the artist, did everything. This Bird and Eggplant was produced about 1950.