This book tells the story of banker Shotaro Kaga and orchid grower Kenkichi Goto whose pioneering orchid breeding programme in the early 20th century started a horticultural craze in Japan that continues to this day. To illustrate the beauty of his plants Kaga turned to gifted watercolourist Zuigetsu Ikeda and many talented woodblock artisans to create a stunning artistic legacy. First published in 1946, this print collection was titled Rankafu (Orchid Print Album). The Rankafu prints are now considered masterworks of botanical art

• Introduction : aims of the book and an overview of the story behind the prints
• Shotaro Kaga : an early life close to nature
• Shotaro Kaga's life-altering foreign travels
• Building the Oyamazaki Villa and orchid greenhouses, and learning to grow, flower, and hybridise orchids by trial and error (1911-1932)
• Bringing art to the Villa : Zuigetsu Ikeda is hired and trained as resident artist, producing hundreds of watercolour paintings of orchids grown and flowered at the Villa
• Woodblock printing and the production of the Rankafu print set
• The Rankafu prints : a summary of the prints with updated orchid species and hybrid names
• A post-war postscript : the end of an era by 1967 and the Zuigetsu Ikeda watercolours revealed in 1995
• A 21st-century postscript : the remarkable discovery of twelve sets of surviving Rankafu woodblocks, the just-in-time Rankafu reprinting, and an end of an artistic era