The prefectural flower of Yamagata is benibana, the safflower. It was not chosen as decoration; the choice is rooted in history.
Yamagata was Japan's largest producer of safflower
In the Edo period, the Murayama area along the middle reaches of the Mogami River, blessed with fertile soil and a climate prone to morning mist, grew into Japan's largest safflower-producing region.
Its output was called Mogami senda, "a thousand loads from Mogami," and records show that at its peak in the late Edo period it accounted for about half of all safflower produced in Japan.
The Japan Heritage story "Yamadera and Benibana" conveys the value of Mogami safflower as "a hundred times that of rice, ten times that of gold." It was that precious a crop.
Making the color beni from a flower
Safflower buds are picked, fermented, rolled and dried into what is called benimochi, safflower cakes. The red pigment extracted from them is beni.
Beni was used for lipstick and for dyeing silk. Among Japan's traditional colors, it is a red that has been treated as special.
Benimochi made in Yamagata was carried down the Mogami River by boat to the port of Sakata, and from there by kitamaebune trading ships to Kyoto. This route has a history of more than 450 years. For a long time, the beni of Kyoto was made from Yamagata's flowers.
Yamagata was also a "producer of color"
In the town of Kahoku there is the Benibana Museum, on the site of the residence of Horigome Shirobei, a wealthy merchant who made his fortune in safflower. Its exhibits convey the trade of that time and the culture that came in from Kyoto. In recent years, Mogami safflower has also been recognized as a Japanese Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage System.
I paint in Yamagata, and my work is layering colors. Knowing that this land once produced "color itself" and sent it across Japan, I feel that what I do is somehow connected to the history of this place.
In Mermaid nao's commissioned art, too, I sometimes think of this safflower when I use red.
Sources
Japan Heritage "Yamadera and Benibana" (Mogami safflower: worth a hundred times rice, ten times gold)
Yamagata City official website (Yamagata's "Mogami Benibana," connected by history and tradition, recognized as a Japanese Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage System)
Oishii Yamagata website (About safflower: the history and current state of safflower cultivation in Yamagata)
Yamagata travel guide (Benibana Museum / former Horigome residence)
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