The orchid plants in this print feature gradated tones, a significant feature of the earliest and highest-quality editions of the Mustard Seed Garden Painting Manual. This guide, named after the mansion of the man who commissioned it, examined technical aspects of painting and provided examples of various image types. Colored pigment was applied unevenly to the dampened blocks to achieve the gradated shading of the leaves, rocks, and yellow ground.

This very lovely Chinese print, which is most likely from the 1701 edition of the Mustard Seed Garden Painting Manual, should be compared with the Kitao Masayoshi print of Chrysanthemums and Butterflies exhibited nearby, which has a similar subject. Note also the fine quality of the color printing. The Mustard Seed Garden Painting Manual was known and reprinted in Japan by the mid-eighteenth century.