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Chrysanthemums in Japanese horticulture are cultivated flowers shaped by generations of breeding and care. Petals can spread, curl or hang in long strands, while one plant can be trained into striking display forms. Courtly viewing, Edo gardening and modern flower production belong to this continuing history.
The focus here is cultivated chrysanthemums used for display and cut flowers. Introduced from China, they developed into diverse garden forms in Japan. Wild relatives also occur in Japan; the history of cultivated flowers is distinct from that of all wild chrysanthemum species.
What looks like one chrysanthemum bloom is a head made of many small flowers, or florets. In single forms, the tiny tubular disc florets are easy to see at the centre, surrounded by ray florets with long petal-like corollas. Floret shape and arrangement help create the different garden forms.
Classical groups preserve regional traditions of breeding and appreciation. Saga petals rise upright as flowering progresses; long Ise petals curl and droop, while Chōji flowers have a raised centre. Flower shape, its changes during opening and the plant’s overall posture all matter.
Edo chrysanthemums continue changing after the flower opens. Petals turn, bend and fold inward into different configurations. A flower therefore offers more than one appearance over time, and each cultivar follows its own pattern of change.
Higo cultivation developed in Kumamoto. Its flowers leave conspicuous spaces between petals, with both flat and tubular forms. The National Museum of Japanese History links the 1819 Yōgiku shinansha to the establishment of characteristic growing methods, showing how written instruction supported cultivation.
Gyoen also displays rounded ōgiku blooms and kudamono chrysanthemums, whose tubular petals radiate outward. Ichimonji chrysanthemums have large single flowers with about sixteen petals, resembling a chrysanthemum crest. These names describe flower forms; cascading and ōzukuri displays describe how a whole plant is trained.
Chrysanthemums are readily propagated from cuttings. A leafy growing shoot is cut and placed in soil to root as a new plant. This vegetative method supports the production of many plants of a cultivar. Training, support and control of flowering then shape plants for different uses.
Cascade training evokes wild flowers hanging from a rocky cliff. At Shinjuku Gyoen, branching stems from one small-flowered plant follow a bamboo-and-wire framework. The sweeping shape and mass of bloom result from sustained training of the living plant.
Gyoen’s ōzukuri display is grown from a single plant without grafting. Branches are multiplied over more than a year, producing hundreds of flowers arranged into a rounded dome. Position, form and timing must be coordinated across the plant.
Many chrysanthemums initiate flowers as days shorten and nights lengthen. Growers use night lighting to interrupt this response, delaying bud formation and regulating stem length and marketing time. The effect depends on the cultivar and lighting conditions.
The National Museum of Japanese History places the introduction of cultivated chrysanthemums within exchanges with China during the ritsuryō era. Chrysanthemum gatherings were established at the Heian court. Autumn poetry, celebratory drink and wishes for long life formed part of their cultural setting.
Saga chrysanthemums carry traditions reaching back to Emperor Saga, but the museum dates the formation of their surviving cultivar group to around late Edo. A longstanding temple association does not mean that today’s flower forms have remained unchanged since Heian times.
Edo cultivation spread beyond elite households. During the Bunka and Bunsei eras, Sugamo nurseries circulated growing methods and developed ways to transport plants over distance. Copied manuals helped standardize supports and tying. Chrysanthemum constructions and figures also became public entertainments.
Hokusai’s Kiku-zu of 1847, held by the Hokusai Museum, presents varied chrysanthemum forms. The Edo-Tokyo Museum places it within the history of breeding and public flower displays. It provides a nineteenth-century visual record of interest in these cultivated shapes.
In Meiji Japan, Fukuba Hayato promoted large chrysanthemums for export and international display, while enthusiasts at home continued growing medium-flowered forms. Founded in 1889, Shūkōkai supported them through plant exchange and shows. Daigo Satō’s study places the shift toward easier large-flowered cultivation later, as public park shows broadened participation in late Meiji and Taishō.
Spray chrysanthemums carry several flowers on a branching stem and are used in arrangements. JA Okinawa dates their development in the Netherlands to the early twentieth century, their introduction to Japan to 1974 and to Okinawa to around 1980. Modern production also draws on forms developed overseas.
The Imperial Household Ministry held chrysanthemum viewing at Akasaka in 1878. Renamed the Kangikukai in 1880, it included foreign diplomatic guests. Gyoen began growing some display plants in 1904, took over all cultivation in 1925, and became the event venue in 1929.
Disasters and war interrupted the imperial displays from 1937 to 1948. After Gyoen became a national garden in 1949, its inherited cultivation techniques were shown to the public. The National Museum of Japanese History has exhibited classical chrysanthemums since 2000 while collecting, growing and breeding them.
NARO and Suntory reported blue chrysanthemums in 2017 after genetic engineering altered pigment production. Several flower forms had been developed. Cultivation and sale in Japan still required work to reduce the risk of crossing with wild relatives, followed by biodiversity assessment and approval.
Chrysanthemum wine is associated with wishes for long life at Chōyō. The September flower-card motif pairs the flower with a sake cup. Chrysanthemums also appear in heraldry and ornament; these designs are distinct from the living forms cultivated by gardeners.
The imperial chrysanthemum emblem has sixteen petals with the tips of another sixteen showing between them, making a double-layered design. The passport emblem has a single layer. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs distinguishes these two related designs.
Chrysanthemums also serve everyday needs, including memorial offerings. NARO’s 2013 account identifies control of flowering through night lighting as important to commercial production. A display plant and a marketable cut flower can therefore involve different choices of cultivar and growing goals.
In Yamagata, edible chrysanthemum petals are prepared as ohitashi or dressed with vinegar. Enmeiraku, also called Mottenohoka, is one cultivar. MAFF describes the flowers being sold alongside vegetables, showing a food use distinct from ornamental growing.
Branches are trained over a bamboo-and-wire framework.
No. It is grown from one plant without grafting.
They continue turning and bending, with changes differing by cultivar.
No. It can suppress bud formation and delay flowering.
The public.
