meiji era

In 1893, as Japan navigated the profound transformations of the Meiji era, an artist whose name barely survived time completed one of the most exquisite botanical series in the late ukiyo-e tradition: Keika Hyakugiku — One Hundred Chrysanthemums. Hasegawa’s life remains largely undocumented; only his work survives, and it is enough to establish him as a master of the mokuhanga woodblock technique applied to botanical documentation with a precision and luminosity that no other medium of the period could achieve.