Week 3
Discussion
About Camellias
Varieties of Camellias
Tea plants in general belong to the family Theaceae. Camellia is a flowering genus within that family and is comprised of more than 220 species. Popular for many centuries among cultivators, over 26,000 varieties of camellias have been described to date.
The blossom shown above is much more elaborate than those of naturally occuring camellias which tend to have 5 to 9 petals. An example is the golden camellia, shown below.
While most natural camellia blossoms come in white, pink, and red colors, truly yellow varieties are found only in south China and Vietnam. Incidentally, the unusual photo above shows the backside of the leaves rather than the front. You should be able to see that the front side would have a rather bumpy surface. Most camellia leaves are smoother.
Many of the huge variety of camellias grown today have multiple colors.
Camellia sinensis
One of the most commercially useful of all camellia species, C. sinensis, is commonly known as the tea plant, tea shrub, or tea tree. Depending on how varieties of C. sinensis leaves are processed, the species yields white tea, yellow tea, green tea, oolong, dark tea, and black tea. The twigs and stems produce kukicha (twig tea).
White is the only flower color that C. sinensis produces.
The worldwide commercial demand for tea calls for the production of huge quantities of the plants.
When mature, fruit is produced.
Each of those pods contains many seeds.
Among the commercially useful products of some varieties of C. sinensis and other camellia plants is cooking oil, extracted from the seeds. It is widely used by hundreds of millions of people, especially in south China.
Camellia japonica
Otherwise known as the common camellia or Japanese camellia (tsubaki), this is one of the most popular ornamental types of camellia. Thousands of varieties have been produced.
Here is a closer view of a mass of C. japonica blossoms.
Camellia color begins to show as buds start to open up. The green part behind the emerging red blossom is the calyx.
This is a much closer view of what an uncultivated C. japonica camellia blossom probably looks like. This one looks like it hasn't fully opened up yet.
Japanese traditionally have mixed feelings about tsubaki (C. japonica). It was a symbol of the Shinto sun goddess, Amaterasu, and represented resistance and longevity because of its ability to withstand harsh frosts. There was a time in which only samurai were allowed to grow and adorn themselves with tsubaki. Then another association, a negative one, arose. When camellia blossoms expire, the entire heavy flower falls to the ground at once, much like a head severed by a sword. It became thought that the touch a camellia blossom was a sign of pending misfortune.
That doesn't stop the common use of tsubaki seed oil for hair care by the Japanese.
The photo above was taken at Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge, near Pasadena in the Los Angeles area. There is a large area dedicated to a double forest, the lower tier consisting of camellia bushes like those above and an upper tier of overarching oak trees. Late winter through spring is generally a good time to see them in bloom.
Artwork
As popular as they are, it isn't surprising to see camellias used in a variety of art forms. A bonsai example is shown below.
The picture below shows an example from the ikenobo school of ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging.
Other plants used in the arrangement besides camellias are forsythia and tulip.
Kanō Kōi (d. 1636)
Kōi was a minor member of the Kanō school, but little is known about him other than a few of his pieces. The Edo period byōbu below is titled Blossoming Plum and Camellia in a Garden. The garden is presumably on the other side of the bamboo fence.
Sakai Hōitsu (1761 – 1829)
An important legacy of Hōitsu's is his revival of Ogata Korin's (1658 – 1716) popularity and the firming up of the Rinpa school of Japanese painting. Hōitsu reproduced several of Korin's works, but he created may unique compositions of his own, too, like this Camellia and Tea Bowl painting in a fan shaped format. One of the trademarks of Rinpa school artists was the use of the tarashikomi technique; the application of drops of ink on wet, previous painted, washi. The result can be seen in the camellia leaves and tea bowl surface.
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 – 1858)
Hiroshige is widely known as one of Japan's most prominent ukiyo-e landscape artists, but he produced many kachō-ga (birds and flowers pictures), too. Below are two of his kachō-ga featuring camellia's, both produced in the 1831 to 1833 time period.
Utagawa Hiroshige II (1826 – 1869)
Suzuki Chinpei became a student of Hiroshige's and used Shigenobu as his artist's name during his apprenticeship. When Hiroshige died in 1858, Shigenobu married Hiroshige's daughter and took Hiroshige's name for his own. He produced work so similar to Hiroshige's that scholars have difficulty distinguishing between the two. The print below is titled Camellia at Ueno Shimotera in the Eastern Capital. It is part of his series, Thirty-six Selected Flowers, produced in 1866.
Ohara Koson (1877 – 1945)
Koson was a prominent member of the shin-hanga movement to restore traditional Japanese subjects, values, and techniques to Japanese woodblock print art. He specialized in kachō-ga. His 1929 Camellia and Rice Birds print is an example.
