The Lotus Quest: In Search of the Sacred Flower

by Mark Griffiths

A captivating history of one of the world’s most iconic and mysterious flowers Bewitched by a lotus which flowered from three-thousandyear- old seeds in his English garden, Mark Griffiths set out to track the origins and significance of this sublime plant in this beautifully-illustrated book. The Lotus Quest takes Griffiths from the headquarters of the Linnaean Society in London to a mountain top in northern Japan. As he travels in search of this ancient flower, Griffiths looks at the lotus’s significance in ancient Egypt and India, the plant’s medicinal uses and the inspiration it has provided to Western artists. As he tracks the plant, its story unveils a stunning vision of Japan’s feudal era with visits to shrines, ruins, gardens and wild landscapes as well as meetings with priests and archaeologists, philosophers and anthropologists, gardeners and botanists, poets and artists. He even dines on the lotus in a Tokyo cafe. By the end of Griffiths’ journey, when he reaches the hauntingly beautiful Japanese temple of Chuson-ji, readers will finally understand why the lotus has obsessed people throughout the ages.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Nature, Japan, Cultural, Science, Microhistory

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Talbot Hook]

There was some very beautiful imagery within this book. The author clearly has a deep appreciation and understanding of aesthetics- specifically those of Japan, which, of the cultures of the world, is the country most associated with attention to beauty and its development.

Praise stated, the historical accounts within this book were bland, and I felt as though the last few chapters were very disjointed from the focus of the author. They related only tangentially to the topic of the sacred lotus, although the lovely writing was present throughout.

Very well-written, and deserving of a slow read.

[NoBeatenPath]

This book started off very well, with an interesting and engaging survey of the lotus and its place in human culture and history.

As warned in the introduction, the book soon starts to specialise in the place of the lotus in Japanese history. I am a fan of writing about Japanese history and cultural, and writing about botanical subjects, so you would think I would have been a great fan of this section of the book. However, I found my interest flagging as the author became bogged down in the retelling of various chapters of Japan's history that had a tangential link to the lotus. The problem is the writing is just not that engaging, and while many of the characters and situations he writes about are interesting, the writing just doesn't live up to it.

There is also the problem that the author doesn't quite mesh the scientific with the cultural anthropology and story-telling that this book seems to be aiming for.

All that said, it is not a bad book, and would be of interest if lotuses, paleo-botany or Japanese culture are topics that really grip you.

[Aditi]

The books starts off very well, but it failed to keep me from somewhere around the middle. It is usually believed that "a picture is worth a thousand words", but the author seems to not think so. There are lengthy descriptions of lotuses in paintings, monuments etc when a simple figure would suffice (or at least be a good supplement to the text). I felt that the ratio of the knowledge I gained, to the amount I read was very low.

I would have appreciated if the author included at least a few maps! It is not fun to interrupt reading and run to Google to figure out where certain places or rivers are.

Also, I wasn't really interested in what other authors wrote about the lotus. I understand that it is necessary to showcase the importance of the flower in the respective cultures, but it was not interesting to read so many excerpts. For me, it got plain annoying.

I stopped at page 193.

[Julie Thomason]

This was a gem of a book. I have been fascinated by Japanese spirituality ever since I found out about the tea ceremony and the significance of the stages, many years ago. I picked this up a while back and felt it was the time to read it. A slow dense read, crammed with unexpected information. I hadn’t known about the connection to Ancient Egypt nor Alexander the Great with the lotus.. As a linguist, I enjoyed observations on translating poetry and how Japanese itself developed as a language. A bit of a slog at the end on the Medieval Japanese history, some type chart as an appendix could have helped. However, it was a joy to read.

[Book Grocer]

Purchase Lotus Quest here for just $8!

There is some very beautiful imagery written within this book. The author clearly has a deep appreciation and understanding of aesthetics - specifically those of Japan. Thoroughly researched, impassioned and endlessly intriguing. Griffiths relates his plant of choice to history, geography, botany, culture and the arts in a convincing way without losing the narrative structure.
Alisha, The Book Grocer

[Jo]

I didn't finish (renewals ran out at the library) but did benefit from this well-written-albeit-a-bit-too-dense-with-detail-for-me tome. The author's careful observations of the lotus or even aspects of the lotus that appear in art from around the world are revelations, and I loved his stories of visiting Linnaeus's original collection housed in a vault under Burlington House in London (who knew?) and of sprouting 3,000 year old lotus seeds in the blinking of an eye!

[Maggie Sorgen]

This story was brilliantly written, though a bit "text-bookish" so slow to read for me. Following Mark Griffiths journey through present-day Japan interwoven with her ancient history was fascinating. And the lotus! Sprouting 1000 year old seeds speaks volumes of the power and magic of this life-giving plant.

[Scott]

Well, shoot, nearest copy according to WorldCat is 236 mi. away, at Princeton U.

[Mark]

Brilliant! Wish he would do one on bamboo.

[Steven]

Very interesting book but does go off the point a bit telling the story of japan's history. But well written and an enjoyable read.

[Maggie]

Absolutely wonderful - beautifully, poetically written and full of incredibly interesting and well-told stories.