Asagao, the morning glory, in an old picture book

Asagao 36 kasen

The second boom of cultivation in the varied morning glory occurred during the Kaei/Ansei era. Many special picture books appeared then. In this boom, very complicated flowers of high horticultural value were produced by combining the botan double flower with various kinds of varied morning glory. Let's look at some flowers in "Asagao 36 kasen" (Kaei 7, 1854), which featured 36 superior flowers of the time and was named after 36 famous tanka poets. This picture book was edited by Bankaen Yokoyama and prefaced by Naotaka Nabesima (immediate vassal of the shougun), known as Kyouyoukan, who exhibited a strange feathered morning glory. Sessai Hattori, a painter of natural history, depicted the varied Japanese morning glory realistically.

Slide No. 072-079

Asagao Ipomoea nil (=Pharbitis nil) Asagao 36 kasen, Fig. 14	Asagao Ipomoea nil (=Pharbitis nil) Asagao 36 kasen, Fig. 16	Asagao Ipomoea nil (=Pharbitis nil) Asagao 36 kasen, Fig. 9	Asagao Ipomoea nil (=Pharbitis nil) Asagao 36 kasen, Fig. 17
Asagao Ipomoea nil (=Pharbitis nil) Asagao 36 kasen, Fig. 20	Asagao Ipomoea nil (=Pharbitis nil) Asagao 36 kasen, Fig. 22	Asagao Ipomoea nil (=Pharbitis nil) Asagao 36 kasen, Fig. 8	Asagao Ipomoea nil (=Pharbitis nil) Asagao 36 kasen, Fig. 15