The Deeds of Sadanobu Matsudaira in the Ornamental Lotus in the Edo Period

Abstract

This study refers to the deeds of Sadanobu Matsudaira (retired member of theShohgun's Council of Elders; his pseudonym is Rakuoh which means the aged man who is spiritually awakened and appreciates the universe and nature calmly) in the ornamental lotus in the Edo period.
Sadanobu Matsudaira has rendered remarkable services to the cause of the contemplation of the ornamental lotus. He collected and cultivated many cultivars of the flowering lotus at more than three places in his garden Yokuon'en. Then he admired and sketched them. His appreciation of the lotus was free from the traditional way possesed with the point of the views of literature, religion or ethics.
Moreover he had the picture book of the cultivars of lotus, Seikohfu, written. Having been scattered and lost after the war, it is regarded as the most authoritative picture book of the flowering lotus, and offers various informations of the actual conditions of appreciating lotus and the variety of cultivars in those days. Then the character and the position of Seikohfu in the picture books of lotus at that time is studied, and the variety of cultivars listed in it is presumed by the method of the cluster analysis and the like.