Vegetables

野菜 yasai

Playful everyday vegetables; a modern, informal motif that suits kitchen, lunch and food-gift wraps.

Modern informal motif; vegetables as an art subject from the 18th century

Everyday vegetables have little traditional symbolic use, apart from punning ones such as eggplant. They did become an art subject: the Kyoto painter Itō Jakuchū (1716–1800), son of a greengrocer in Nishiki market, painted scrolls of fruit and vegetables and a 'Vegetable Nirvana' with a daikon as the Buddha. Modern furoshiki use vegetables as a playful kitchen and food-gift motif.