Discussion

There is a wide range of plants generally called violets or viola. Most are part of the Violaceae family with 25 genera and more than 1,000 species. The terms "violet" and "viola" are normally reserved for small-flowered annuals or perennials with no persistent woody stems; i.e. the leaves and flower stems grow directly from the roots. The African Violets below are an example.

Here is a closer look at another type of violet blossom.

Pansies like those shown below are related plants, mostly cultivated for large, multi-colored blossoms.

Violet flowers and leaves are edible with the leaves having a high level of vitamins A and C. They can be used in salads or cooked as greens. The flowers can be made into jellies, candied, or tossed into a salad.

In floriography, the language of flowers, the color violet represents grace, refinement, elegance, royalty, and beauty. Pansies represent loving thoughts, love in idleness, thinking, free thinkers, remembrance, and consideration. It is the birth flower of February. In England, pansies were used for secret courting.

Sumire

A viola species named sumire (Viola mandshurica) in Japan is native to east Asia and is common throughout the country, from mountainous regions to woodlands to urban areas alike. Like many other viola species, leaves and flowers emerge directly from the ground; i.e. roots. Its trumpet-shaped flowers have five petals. The blossoms are a rich purple color, though color variations exist based on growing conditions.

Sumire likes to grow along walls and roadsides. Note the long leaves that distinguish sumire from many other violet plants.

Like other violets, every part of sumire is edible. Flower pancakes are made from it as part ofL the Korean Samjinnal festial celebrating the coming of spring.

Here is a close-up of a sumire blossom.

Artwork

There seems to be little Japanese artwork featuring sumire, or violets of any kind, as the main subject in paintings, though several can be found included along with other plants or as tenkei in paintings. These first two paintings were shown in earlier lessons.

Sakai Hōitsu (1761 - 1829)

Bracken, Dandelion, Violet and Horsetails (1817) from Ōson Gafu (Picture Book).

Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743)

Kenzan was the younger brother of Ogata Kōrin (1658 – 1716), the great Rinpa school master. Kenzan was much more noted for his ceramics and lacquered boxes, though he painted, also. The two often collaborated on projects. The painting below was published in a book titled Flowers & Birds, Heightened with Gold Sprays (date uncertain). Note that there are dandelions and what appear to be bracken fiddleheads in the painting along with the clump of violets in the lower right.

Sakai Hōitsu (1761 - 1829) Again

Hōitsu is noted for reviving interest in the Rinpa school and in particular Ogata Kōrin. The byōbu below, one of a pair titled Cherry and Maple Trees, was painted in the early 1820s. The mottled appearance of the cherry tree trunk was achieved by use of the tarashikomi technique, the application of blotches of paint on recently painted, still wet surfaces. See if you can find the violets in the byōbu.

The violets are pretty small, but remember that the byōbu is large. Here are some close-ups of the painting's violets. See if you can recognize any of the other plants in the painting from recent lessons.

Violet or the Color Purple

Dating as far back as the Nara Period (710 – 784), sumptuary laws made it illegal for commoners to wear purple colored clothing. Cost was a factor because of the difficulty of extracting the color from plants and applying it to clothing, and conspicuous consumption (e.g. the wearing of expensive clothing) was banned for all but aristocrats.

During the Edo period (1603 – 1868) when relatively large numbers of commoners began to become wealthy, sumptuary laws were skirted whenever possible. An example for clothing was that outer layers of kimonos were often made of poor quality and drab colored material, but inner layers featured expensive silks and colors. Purple became especially popular when superstar actors like Danjūrō Ichikawa wore purple items for some roles in kabuki plays.

Kunisada Utagawa (1786 – 1865)

Western art critics long regarded Kunisada as an inferior artist. However in his own time, he was easily the most popular producer of ukiyo-e prints; his reputation far exceeding that of contemporaries like Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849), Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 – 1858), and Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798 – 1861). He was a trend setter, often emulated by other artists. The majority of his output depicted kabuki scenes and actors, but he also produced many bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful people), pictures of sumo wrestlers, and other subjects. In the 1990s, western critics, reevaluating Japanese art, came to much better appreciate Kunisada's work, and he is now ranked among the best of Japan's ukiyo-e artists.

Kunisada's 1857 ukiyo-e scene below from the kabuki play, Sukeroku (助六由縁江戸桜) (The Flower of Edo), depicts the actor Danjūrō Ichikawa in the title role of Hanakawado Sukeroku wearing a purple headband, a common feature of prints depicting Sukeroku scenes. It is said that the popularity of the color purple among commoners soared as a consequence, though sumptuary laws still restricted its use.