Western Flowers Series prints began appearing in the late 1920s. Early sets of forty-eight designs were complete by 1931, and a few additional designs followed. The series proved popular and went through additional revised printings in 1933 and 1936. It also sold well enough that it encouraged imitation.

Between 1937 and 1941 the firm of Yokohama printer-publisher 竹村秀雄, Takemura Hideo (known in the West as 'H. Takemura & Co.'), produced and sold a new series of at least twenty-seven floral woodblock prints in direct imitation of Western Flowers Series. Intentionally closely similar, the two series are often confused since both series were originally produced and sold without artist signatures or seals within the image area. Most of the Takemura designs are entirely new, although many are clearly derived from (or suggested by) individual Western Flowers Series designs. At least one design was simply recarved from a Western Flowers Series design and relabeled.

However, the two series can easily be distinguished if the print margins are visible. The designs in the original Western Flowers Series never have printed text in either of the side margins, and those in the derivative Takemura series always have at least the title in the lower right side margin. Additionally, most of the Takemura prints of this era have a woodblock-printed copyright notice in one of the lower side margins (see example at top left). It reads: 版権所有 竹村秀雄, han ken sho yu / Takemura Hideo, ‘printing rights held by Takemura Hideo’.

Subsequently, many copies were sold additionally marked within the image area with a signature and seal (see example at left). Copies of each design have probably been sold both with and without such markings. The signature 蒲堂, Hodou, is assumed to be that of 西村蒲堂, Nishimura Hodou (called here 'Hodo'), who is generally believed to have been an in-house artist for Takemura from around 1930 until the business shut down in 1941. Instead of a Hodo seal, the signature occurs with a red Takemura seal (which consists of the stylized kanji 竹村, take-mura). Therefore, since this series has no known contemporary title, it is called here Hodo-Takemura Floral Series.

No original inventory numbering is known for this series. However, more than half of the documented designs have invariant, woodblock-printed dates from which the relative order of first publication for those particular designs can be determined. Unfortunately, the other designs never have dates, and their positions relative to the ordering of the dated designs are likely to remain unknown. When dates are included, they always appear in the lower left margin above the copyright notice. If there is no date, the copyright notice is usually moved to the right margin below the title, and the left margin is blank. Less commonly, the copyright notice remains alone in the lower left margin or is omitted entirely. There is always a title in the lower right margin whether or not the other markings are present.

It was believed that the designs of the Hodo-Takemura Floral Series only occurred with pale backgrounds with the Hodo signature and the Takemura seal (as shown here on almost all of the examples). However, recently a single copy of the chrysanthemum design (no date i) with a black bakground has been documented. Like the black background versions of the Hodo-Takemura Kacho Series (see below), this copy has no signature and the Hodo seal.

This brief introduction is taken from a longer article to appear here in the future. Therefore the design images are presented first in hopes that this generally unavailable data will prove useful. Unfortunately, all of this documentation is secondhand since the Rakusan Archive Project does not maintain a study collection of this series. Consequently, file examples for the majority of these designs are rather sparse, and better quality images are eagerly solicited. It is also believed that there are additional designs not yet encountered, as well as further marking variations of the documented designs. Please do contact us if you have questions or are able to offer additional information.

Currently, this section is incomplete with an unknown number of additional designs missing.

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