The term “kikuzake” refers to sake in which chrysanthemum blooms are steeped; this is served on the Chrysanthemum Festival (September 9 according to the old calendar), called “Chouyou no sekku” or “Kiku no sekku” in Japanese. In the hope of eliminating evils and achieving longevity, people celebrated the Chouyo Festival by pouring sake for each other with corollas of chrysanthemum floating on them. Therefore, kikuzake is a seasonal word for autumn.

In this work, the literal meaning of the poem in this work is “Chrysanthemum garden ― we walk with little sake cups.” (This poem itself was written by Issa KOBAYASHI, who was a great Japanese poet.) ― chrysanthemum and Japanese “sake” are very compatible.

Tekiho Imoto was born in Ooita prefecture 1909. He studied at Kyoto Painting College under Inshou Doumoto, who was a master of Japanese-style painting. Although he also painted landscapes, he is better at simple paintings like this. I guess that he really wanted to drink sake when he was painting this work.