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Chrysanthemums

Chrysanthemums have been cultivated in China since the 15th century B.C. Their earliest depictions show them as small, yellow, daisy-like flowers, perhaps similar to today's Chrysanthemum indicum.

In 1630, Chinese documents recorded over 500 chrysanthemum varieties.

It is thought that chrysanthemums were imported from China to Japan as early as the 5th century A.D. Their cultivation in Japan began sometime in the Nara Period (710 – 794). During the Edo Period (1603 – 1868), chrysanthemum cultivation reached its height in popularity. Many flower shapes, colors, and varieties were created. By the end of the Edo Period, Japan was exporting many of its chrysanthemum varieties back to China, greatly influencing chrysanthemum cultivation there. In the modern era, varieties were bred for size, with many blossoms reaching nearly 8 inches in diameter.

The first European mention of chrysanthemums came in 1689, and within a century, cultivation began there, too. Today, there are an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 cultivars worldwide.

Single

Anemone

Pompon

Incurved

Reflexed

Quill

Spider

Spooned

Chrysanthemum Plants

The illustration below shows stages in the growth of chrysanthemums, Note that a single plant gradually branches out into multiple stems as it grows, with each stem having a single blossom at the top. All chrysanthemums are perennials, assuming they are able to survive harsh winters in some areas.

Chrysanthemum leaves come in two general types. The illustration above and the photo below show the broadleaf type.

They typically have five lobes. The narrow indentations may be shallower or deeper--going almost to the stem--depending on the species. The edges may or may not be serrated.

What appears to be a single chrysanthemum blossom is actually a dense cluster, or head, of many florets. Every chrysanthemum has two types of florets; disk florets are the ones that in a typical flower are where you would expect the stamen to be, and ray florets, the much longer outer "petals" in rings around the central disk. In many chrysanthemums, the disk florets are hidden from view by the ray florets. Each ray floret has male genetic material, and each disk floret has both male and female genetic material.

Kogiku Chrysanthemums

Kogiku is the Japanese word for chrysanthemums with small blossoms. The species doesn't matter; only the size of the blossom does. Though the blossoms are small, the plants aren't necessarily small. The photo below was taken at Akabori Small Chrysanthemum Park, northeast of Tōkyō. It grows many thousands of kogiku chrysanthemums annually. Each of these yellow mounds of blossoms is one plant with hundreds of kogiku chrysanthemums.

These chrysanthemums may be growing in pots under the surface. They are probably a variety that has been genetically "trained" to grow in that dome-like shape. Such training has produced some remarkable effects. Some examples are these floral cascades, each of which consists of a single plant.

Artwork

Some chrysanthemums, those with the smallest flowers, can be made into bonsai. Such living works of chrysanthemum art are known in Japan as bonsai zukuri.

Ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arrangement, sometimes makes use of chrysanthemums. This arrangement is from the ikenobo school, the largest and oldest school of ikebana.

Rinpa School

The Rinpa school of art was not a formal, organized school of art in the same way that the Kanō School and Tosa Schools were. Rather, it consisted of artists who favored a particular style of art. A primary characteristic is the use of decorative elements in paintings. The calligraphy/painter partners, Hon’ami Kōetsu (1558 – 1637) and Tawaraya Sōtatsu (c. 1570 – 1640), are regarded as the earliest practitioners of the Rinpa school style, but the name, Rinpa, is taken from part of the name of the person who is widely regarded as one of Japan's greatest artists. Ogata Kōrin (1658 – 1716).

The byōbu below is by an unknown Rinpa school artist from the late 16th century or early 17th century. Based on the plants depicted, it is an autumn painting. Besides white, red, and orange chrysanthemums, the byōbu includes three flowers from Japan's aki no nanakusa (seven grasses of autumn); Japanese silver grass, blue Chinese bellflowers, and bush clover.

Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849)

Hokusai is most famous for his landscape ukiyo-e; especially The Great Wave off Kanagawa, the first print in his Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji series. That series eventually expanded to a total of forty-six views. Hokusai's paintings covered many more subjects than landscapes, however. Prominent among them were kachō-ga (pictures of birds and flowers). This print, Sparrows and Chrysanthemums (1825) is one of them.

Keika Hasegawa (?)

I have been able to find very little about this artist other than that she was active in the late 19th century. She is best known for her chrysanthemum prints, published in 1893 in a book titled One Hundred Chrysanthemums. This is one of those prints.