Description
A beautiful 78-card tarot deck featuring lush and whimsical watercolor illustrations, inspired by Art Nouveau and Japanese folklore, finished with beautiful Japanese indigo edging.
Created by A Miyako M.
“Botan” in Japanese means “peony”, which is the flower prominently featured on the back design of the tarot deck as well as on several cards. In Japanese flower language, peonies represent bravery. Botan is also a play on the word “botanical”, as I use Japanese flower language and other plant imagery throughout the deck.
Lastly, Botan is a tribute to the space and memory in which I painted this deck – there is an old-fashioned Japanese candy called Botan Rice Candy, which I remember my grandmother giving to me as a child. The deck was painted entirely in the dining room of my grandmother’s home, and the Minor Arcana specifically draws inspiration from the Japanese children’s stories that she used to read to me.
Within this deck, you will find both the 22-card Major Arcana (painted in 2017) and the 56-card Minor Arcana (painted in 2019). The Major Arcana is contemporary in design, with influences from Art Nouveau, Japanese flower language, and my family history. The Minor Arcana uses the same aesthetic, with folktale characters reimagined, symbolism in elements, plants, and animals, and cohesive color stories.
The deck comes with a full-color guide booklet of simple interpretations for the cards and a beautiful drawer box. A gold ribbon makes for a delightful unboxing experience (the ribbon is not permanently attached, if you wish to recycle it for another purpose, or use a dot of glue to fix it to the back of the drawer).
Contents
- 78 card tarot deck with linen card stock and beautiful Japanese indigo edging
- Full colour guide-booklet with simple card interpretations
- Deck and booklet presented in a lovely two piece drawer-style keepsake box.
Available separately: The Botan Tarot Anthology Zine gives an in-depth look at the imagery and meaning behind my artwork, notes on the cultural references within the cards, as well as short stories written for the Minor Arcana.
mxaddisonevans (verified owner) –
This deck was a huge step for me in re-engaging with my intuitive and creative self. The art aesthetic is one that as non binary and trans masculine expressive person I can relate easily to within the binary nature of the face cards, which isn’t something that is usual with most ‘human’ decks.
What I find most engaging as a reader is the the nurturing feel of the deck. That doesn’t mean being sugar coated. For instance; The Tower, at first appearance, seems to be an overgrown, abandoned, hut on stilts. None of the drama of explosively dismantled structures, and yet this is a very personal depiction of a watchtower from an internment camp for Japanese-Americans held in the U.S during the Second World War. It’s the power of the dramatic events that change people’s lives forever done from a later perspective, after the dust has settled but the memory very much remains. Miyako’s approach to the design interpretation is definitely the most positive with encouragement and hopefulness I’ve read, which makes it the perfect deck for a readings when struggling with the world from a mental health point of view.