Ken Rodgers writes…

This special print issue of Kyoto Journal explores the ubiquitous role of flora as an essential subtheme in Kyoto’s timeless culture through essays, interviews, and poetry, illuminated by superb photography and artworks. The city is famously unique for its superb gardens, its rich heritage of tea ceremony and flower arrangement, its deeply-rooted culinary traditions based on heirloom vegetables, its longstanding literary appreciation of seasonal blossomings, and its impressive diversity of botanically-inspired decorative arts including the maiko’s monthly almanac of exquisite hair-ornaments, and the even more detailed 72-season Japanese calendar. The very names of flowers and plants have evoked codified associations since the Heian era, and in Noh plays the spirits of plants themselves speak. Family crests draw on minute botanical differentiations in their characterizations, and tiny indoor bonsai conjure visions of the vastness of nature.  Includes insightful contributions by WIK members Mark Hovane, Peter Macintosh, Stephen Mansfield, Cody Poulton,and Robert Weis. 

A perfect Spring read—or gift.

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KJ104 will be back from the printer around April 25th, available to order (or pre-order) through KJ’s website at www.kyotojournal.org/product/kyoto-journal-104-flora-kyoto/ and later, from selected bookstores throughout Japan.