Hanauri: The Japan of Flower Sellers Through the Eyes of Linda Fregni Nagler

The volume is dedicated to the project of the artist Linda Fregni Nagler concerning a series of Japanese photographs of the Yokohama school (Yokohama Shashin), and accompanied an exhibition at MAO Museum of Oriental Art, Italy from 4 December 2024 - 4 May 2025. Text in English and Italian.

The volume is dedicated to the project of the artist Linda Fregni Nagler concerning a series of Japanese photographs of the Yokohama school (Yokohama Shashin), which have as their subject flower sellers (hanauri), a highly appreciated category of street vendors in Japan during the Edo and Meiji periods.

The photographs, dating back to the mid-nineteenth century and collected over a period of 20 years by Linda Fregni Nagler, are accompanied by some works by the artist herself who rephotographed the original albums, printing them in the darkroom and colouring them by hand with a technique similar to that of the period (1860-1910).

This intervention gives new meaning to the images, illustrating the history of a specific way of looking at exoticism and otherness.

The floral and vegetal theme finds further declination in the precious kesa fabrics of the MAO collection, in the Kimonos, in the lacquers and in the woodcuts presented in these pages.

Texts by: Anna Musini, Francesca Filisetti, Cristina Baldacci, Linda Fregni Nagler, Manuela Moscatiello, Roberta Vergagni.

Text in English and Italian.