Banana Garden at Nakashima

This scene shows Japanese fiber banana plants growing between houses in Nakashima, today in the western part of the city of Naha, Okinawa’s capital. It is one of a series of eight prints that provide scenic views of the islands by print artist and painter Hokusai, who never traveled to Okinawa himself but used the illustrations in the Chinese book Abridged History of the Land of Ryūkyū (Ch. Liuqiuguo zhilue) as his source. Though the banana plants shown are of the same species from which textile makers harvested fibers, they are purely decorative here. Whole plantations are maintained to support the textile industry.