Here's the next installment in my Hime Series, Ayame Hime. Ayame means Iris, and it is a late Spring, early Summer blooming flower. I decided that I would place my Ayame-Hime in the late Edo period (sometimes called the Tokugawa Period, 1603-1868), the time in which Japan isolated itself from the rest of the world for two hundred years, and the Japanese culture that we recognize today developed without outside forces to taint it. It was in this time that many Japanese icons were created, ranging from the Geisha to sushi to yukata. Then Sento culture, or bathhouse culture, really picked up in the Edo Period, and I've portrayed my Ayame Hime as just coming back from the Sento, with no make up on, nothing in her hair (which she didn't wash at the bathouse, but will wash when her hairdresser comes to the house in a few days), and only wearing a yukata instead of a complex silk ensemble.

Ayame Hime is a married woman, denoted by the marumage hairstyle she is wearing. In Edo Period, being a newly married bride wasn't a fun thing to be, because a bride would leave her home to move to her husband's home, in which he was most likely not the person in charge, with his father or grandfather being the patriarch. The patriarch's wife was the woman in charge, and the new bride in essence became her servant, and bride-bullying was common. I decided that my Ayame-Hime wouldn't be treated quite so badly, but she is still somewhat of a servant to her new mother (whom, because of a terrible camera shot and bad cropping, you can only see a fraction of in the bottom left corner). She is reaching for an iris to give to her new mother who is performing ikebana, or flower arranging.

I wanted my Ayame Hime to be somewhat of an enigma. The Iris to me is a gorgeous, complex flower that seems far more inspirational than many of the other flowers in my series. It creates so many complex shapes in its petals, and has such deep colors, that it's really far different and mysterious than other flowers. So, I want my princess to be like that too. I wanted at first glance for her to seem like the typical new bride, with the marumage hair, newly blackened teeth, and shaved eyebrows, but when a closer look was taken, she was something quite different. I wanted her body language to be fluid and graceful, her yukata and obi to be worn with panache. I decided to have her holding an uchiwa, a rigid round-shaped fan, that was in the style of the Geisha, with a white fan with her name written on it in red. Perhaps it's a clue to why she's different...

Hime Series-
Sakura Hime-[link]
Kiku Hime-[link]
Fuji Hime-[link]
Ajisai Hime-[link]
Botan Hime-[link]
Asagao Hime-[link]
Ume Hime- [link]
Tsubaki Hime- [link]

9x12, colored pencils.