These irises were in the Horikiri garden in a swampy region of suburban Edo. In common Japanese aesthetic fashion, Hiroshige focused on the foreground and background, omitting the middle. He also employed bokashi to generate the subtle tonal gradation in the sky. For bokashi, the printer paints a thin line of water-soluble ink across the woodblock and then brushes water downward; when the block is printed, traces of the ink color seep down the page. As with all traditionally made Japanese woodcuts, each time a woodblock is printed it must be re-inked before reprinting.