The Voice of Flowers

The following paper discusses the role of hanakotoba (the language of flowers) throughout the works of Yoshiya Nobuko, placing a special emphasis on her most unique work “Onibi.” This paper begins with a loose discussion of hanakotoba’s history within Japan, before delving into “Onibi” to highlight how the use of flowers in literature creates various readings of a text, as well as provides deeper insights into the author, the true purpose of a text, and the social and historical context that a text was produced in