Ogata Kōrin

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Family name hatnote Template:Infobox artist

Ogata Kōrin (Template:Langx; 1658 – June 2, 1716) was a Japanese landscape illustrator, lacquerer, painter, and textile designer of the Rinpa School.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Kōrin is best known for his byōbu folding screens, such as Irises<ref name="Columbia">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Red and White Plum BlossomsTemplate:Sfn (both registered National Treasures), and his paintings on ceramics and lacquerwareTemplate:Sfn produced by his brother Kenzan (1663–1743). Also a prolific designer, he worked with a variety of decorative and practical objects, such as round fans, writing boxes (suzuribako) executed in relief (makie) or inrō (medicine cases).

He is also creditedTemplate:Sfn with reviving and consolidating the Rinpa school of Japanese painting, fifty years after its foundation by Hon'ami Kōetsu (1558–1637) and Tawaraya Sōtatsu (c. 1570 – c. 1640). In fact the term "Rinpa", coined in the Meiji period, means "school of [Kō]rin".Template:Sfn In particular he had a lasting influence on Sakai Hōitsu (1761–1828), who replicated many of his paintings and popularized his work, organizing the first exhibition of Kōrin's paintings at the hundredth anniversary of his death.Template:Sfn

Biography

Kōrin was born in Kyoto into a wealthy merchant family, dedicated to the design and sale of fine textiles.Template:Sfn The family business, named Karigane-ya, catered to the aristocratic women of the city.<ref name="kaikodo">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His father, Ogata Sōken (1621–1687), who was a noted calligrapher in the style of Kōetsu and patron of Noh theater,<ref name="kaikodo"/> introduced his sons to the arts.<ref name="EB1911">Template:Cite EB1911</ref> Kōrin was the second son of Sōken. His younger brother Kenzan was a celebrated potter and painter in his own right, with whom he collaborated frequently.Template:Sfn As the offspring of a wealthy urban family, Kōrin received an education typical of men of his social stature, which included instruction in painting and calligraphy. However, he was reportedly more interested in the theater than in painting during his youth. He most likely received painting lessons from a member of the Kanō school, though attempts to determine the specific teacher have been inconclusive.<ref>Frank Feltens, Ogata Kōrin: Art in Early Modern Japan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021), ISBN 978-0300256918, pp. 112–113.</ref> The most significant influences on his mature painting style were his great-granduncle Hon'ami Kōetsu and the painter Tawaraya Sōtatsu.

Sōken died in 1687,<ref name="kaikodo"/> and the elder brother took over the family business, leaving Kōrin and Kenzan free to enjoy a considerable inheritance. After this, Kōrin led a very active social life, but his spending ran him into financial difficulties the following years, partly due to loans made to feudal lords.Template:Sfn This forced him to pawn some of his treasured possessions. A letter sent by him to a pawnbroker in 1694 regarding "one writing box with deer by Kōetsu" and "one Shigaraki ware water jar with lacquer lid" survives.Template:Sfn

Kōrin established himself as an artist only late in life.Template:Sfn In 1701, he was awarded the honorific title of hokkyōTemplate:Sfn ("Bridge of the Dharma"), the third highest rank awarded to Buddhist artists, and in 1704 he moved to Edo,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn where lucrative commissions were more readily available. His early masterpieces, such as his Irises are generally dated to this period.<ref name="Columbia"/> During this time, he also had the opportunity to study the ink paintings of medieval monk painters Sesshū Tōyō (1420–1506) and Sesson Shukei (c. 1504 – c. 1589).Template:Sfn These are seen as important influences in his work from that period, the Rough Waves painting for example.Template:Sfn

In 1709, he moved back to Kyoto.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He built a house with an atelier on Shinmachi street in 1712 and lived there the last five years of his life.<ref name="MOA-Residence">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Sfn His masterpieces from that last period, such as the Red and White Plum Blossoms screens, are thought to have been painted there.<ref name="MOA-Residence"/>

Kōrin died famous but impoverishedTemplate:Sfn on June 2, 1716,<ref name="EB1911"/> at the age of 59. His grave is located at the Myōken-ji temple in Kyoto.<ref name="RINPA">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His chief pupils were Tatebayashi Kagei, Watanabe Shikō<ref name="EB1911"/> and Fukae Rōshu,Template:Sfn but the present knowledge and appreciation of his work are largely due to the early efforts of his brother KenzanTemplate:Sfn and later Sakai Hōitsu, who brought about a revival of Kōrin's style.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Works

Template:Nihongo is a pair of six-panel byōbu folding screens made circa 1701–1705,Template:Sfn<ref name="Columbia"/> using ink and color on gold-foiled paper.<ref name="Nezu-Irises">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The screens are among the first works of Kōrin as a hokkyō. It depicts abstracted blue Japanese irises in bloom, and their green foliage, creating a rhythmically repeating but varying pattern across the panels. The similarities of some blooms indicate that a stencil was used.<ref name="Columbia"/> The work shows influence of Tawaraya, and it is representative of the Rinpa school. It is inspired by an episode in the Heian-period text The Tales of Ise.

Irises

Each screen measures 150.9 by 338.8 centimetres (59.4 in × 133.4 in). They were probably made for the Nijō family, and were presented to the Nishi Honganji Buddhist temple in Kyoto, where they were held for over 200 years. They were sold by the temple in 1913, and are now held by the Nezu Museum,<ref name="Nezu-Irises"/> where they are exhibited occasionally (last time, from April 12 to May 14, 2017<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>). They are listed as a National Treasure of Japan.

Kōrin made a similar work about five<ref name="Met-Yatsuhashi">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> to twelve<ref name="Nezu-Yatsuhashi">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> years later, another pair of six-panel screens, known as Template:Nihongo. It is a more explicit reference to the "Yatsuhashi (Eight Bridges)" episode from The Tales of Ise, including the depiction of an angular bridge that sweeps diagonally across both screens.<ref name="Met-Yatsuhashi"/>

Template:Multiple image

The screens were made using ink and color on gold-foiled paper and measure 163.7 by 352.4 centimetres (64.4 in × 138.7 in) each. They have been held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City since 1953, and were last displayed in 2013.<ref name="Nezu-Yatsuhashi"/>

Both Irises screens were displayed together for the first time in almost a century<ref name="Nezu-Yatsuhashi"/> in 2012 at the "Korin: National Treasure Irises of the Nezu Museum and Eight-Bridge of the Metropolitan Museum of Art" exhibition at the Nezu Museum.<ref name="Met-Yatsuhashi"/>

Template:Nihongo is a pair of two-folded screens<ref name="TNM-Wind God">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> made using ink and color on gold-foiled paper.<ref name="NICH-Wind God">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is a replica of an original work by Tawaraya which depicts Raijin, the god of lightning, thunder and storms in the Shinto religion and in Japanese mythology, and Fūjin, the god of wind. Later, Sakai Hōitsu, another prominent member of the Rinpa school, painted his own version of the work. All three versions of the work were displayed together for the first time in seventy-five years in 2015, at the Kyoto National Museum exhibition Rinpa: The Aesthetics of the Capital.<ref name="RINPA"/>

Wind God and Thunder God
Kōrin's version
Sōtatsu's original

The screens measure 421.6 by 464.8 centimetres (166 in × 183 in) each.<ref name="TNM-Wind God"/> At some point Hōitsu owned them, and in fact he painted one of his most famous works, Flowering Plants of Summer and Autumn, in the back of these screens. The monumental two-sided byōbu screens became a symbol of the Rinpa tradition, but both sides of the screens have since been separated to protect them from damage.<ref name="NICH-Wind God"/> They are now part of the collection of the Tokyo National Museum, where they are exhibited occasionally. They are listed as an Important Cultural Property.<ref name="TNM-Wind God"/>

Template:Nihongo is a pair of two-panel byōbu folding screens painted by Kōrin using ink and color on gold-foiled paper.Template:Sfn A late masterpiece, completed probably circa 1712–1716 in his atelier in Kyoto,<ref name="MOA-Residence"/> it is considered his crowning achievement.<ref name="MOA-Red and White">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The simple, stylized composition of the workTemplate:Sfn depicts a patterned flowing river with a white plum tree on the left and a red plum tree on the right.Template:Sfn The plum blossoms indicate the scene occurs in spring.Template:Sfn

No documentation exists from before the 20th century on the commission or provenance of the screens.Template:Sfn They receive mention in no Edo-period publications on Kōrin's works and were not copied by his followers, which suggests they were not well known. A journal article in 1907Template:Efn is the first known publication about them, and their first public display came in a 200th-anniversary exhibition of Kōrin's work in 1915.Template:Sfn

In addition to the use of tarashikomi, the work is notable for its plum flowers depicted using pigment only, without any outline, now a popular technique known as Kōrin Plum Flowers.<ref name="MOA-Red and White"/>

Red and White Plum Blossoms

Each screen measures 156.5 × 172.5 centimetres (61.6 × 67.9 in). Red and White Plum Blossoms belonged for a long time to the Tsugaru clan, but were purchased by Mokichi Okada in the mid-1950s.Template:Sfn Along with the rest of Okada's collection,Template:Sfn it is now owned by the MOA Museum of Art in Atami, where they are displayed for one month per year in late winter, the season when the plum blossoms bloom. It is listed as a National Treasure of Japan.

Sometime in the early 18th century, Kōrin painted a notable copy of Tawaraya Sōtatsu's work, Waves at Matsushima.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Gallery

Byōbu folding screens

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