In late May, I went to Horikiri Shobuen(Iris Garden) in Katsushika Ward with my Lumix G99 to enjoy the iris season.
I felt the same way when I came here for the first time last year, and the banners lining the streets are filled with enthusiasm, and this year, too, the shopping streets of Horikiri are appealing Iris-season in their best effort.
Horikiri Shobuen is a public facility in Katsushika Ward that preserves this beautiful flower that has been loved by gardeners and citizens since the Edo period. It is a delicate flower that can only be preserved with a considerable amount of time and effort, such as dividing the plants every year.
The “Iris Festival” was about to be held, and the flowers were just before full bloom. Therefore, the irises were all in full bloom and in good health, and despite it being a weekend, the number of visitors was relatively small, so I was able to take pictures in a relaxed manner, which for me was the perfect condition.
Iris, like chrysanthemums and roses, is a flower that has been tirelessly researched and improved by many professional and amateur gardeners and enthusiasts. If you go there without knowing, you will be surprised at how many varieties there are.
This time I brought the Leica DG50-200mm in addition to the Leica DG12-60mm that I use regularly. As expected, a telephoto lens that does a good job in this kind of environment was really a valuable asset.
If you think I’m boring you with a bunch of similar flower photos, that’s only because of my lack of creativity. In fact, if you go to the site with a camera, you can’t help but take pictures of all the flowers as if you were possessed…. At least that’s what happened to me last year and this year.
But there is certainly no end to it, so let’s call this the last one.
I went home happy to have enjoyed the irises to the fullest, but later I realized that I had made one major blunder. In the “100 Famous Views of Edo” that I have been photographing as part of a series, there was a view of irises at Horikiri that I had taken as a subject. I forgot!
If I had made one of them with a composition similar to Utagawa Hiroshige’s painting, I could have decorated one of the frames of the series with the blossoms in full bloom…. I tried to find something I could use by chance in the pictures I took, but… it didn’t work out that way.
Oh well, let’s hope for next season.
By the way, I found another pleasure on my way to and from Horikiri Shobuen, so I’ll talk about it next time.