Konan Tanigami (Born 1879) was born in Hyogo region. He’s a renowned Kacho-e (flowers and birds) Nihon-ga artist. Tanigami was the first artist in Japan to paint Western flowers and is renowned for his true-to-life, vivid painting of flowers. Tanigami produced 5 volumes of images of Western plants which were published in 1917/18 by Unsodo circa. The series was named 'Seiyo Soka Zofu' meaning a Picture Album of Western Flowers and Plants. The series depict exotic plants and lush flowers in full bloom and organized as a visual record of garden flowers. He produced 2 volumes which each was devoted to the summer and spring seasons, while the fifth volume was a combination of the plants and flowers that flourished in the winter autumn and seasons. Tanigami is more often than not known for his signature peony series.
The Imperial Exhibition (or Teiten) selected him to produce a series of 24 peony prints in 1917. In 1923, after the exhibition, the peony scenes were republished in 2 books of pictures as volumes 1 and 2 of a 3-volume series named 'Shokei Kakicho' (meaning a Book of Flower Forms and Shapes). The 3rd volume is a bit smaller in size. It contains 10 prints of both peony and other flowers. They are all of high quality, and are finely printed on good-looking handmade paper with untrimmed edges. The Tanigami peony prints are eye-catching, exceptional, large designs that make beautiful traditional Japanese pride and joy in any room. They are not like the smaller floral subjects produced in the Japanese print world.
