Ogata Kōrin

Kōrin was born in Kyoto into a wealthy merchant family, dedicated to the design and sale of fine textiles.{{sfn|Nezu Museum|2015|p=v}} The family business, named Karigane-ya, catered to the aristocratic women of the city.{{cite web |url=http://www.kaikodo.com/index.php/exhibition/detail/magnificent_obsessions/175 |title=33. Ogata Korin (1658–1716) 尾形光琳 |author= |date= |website= |publisher=kaikodo |access-date=September 21, 2017 |quote=}} His father, Ogata Sōken (1621–1687), who was a noted calligrapher in the style of Kōetsu and patron of Noh theater, introduced his sons to the arts.{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Kōrin, Ogata|volume=15|page=913|first=Edward Fairbrother|last=Strange}} 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.{{sfn|Nezu Museum|2015|p=vii}} Kōrin studied under Yamamoto Soken (active ca. 1683–1706) of the Kanō school,{{sfn|Nussbaum|Roth|2005|p=561}} Kano Tsunenobu (1636–1713) and Sumiyoshi Gukei (1631–1705), but his biggest influences were his predecessors Hon'ami Kōetsu and Tawaraya Sōtatsu.

Sōken died in 1687, 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.{{sfn|Pekarik|1980|p=57}} 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.{{sfn|Pekarik|1980|pp=57–59}}

Kōrin established himself as an artist only late in life.{{sfn|Nezu Museum|2015|p=iv}} In 1701, he was awarded the honorific title of hokkyō{{sfn|Pekarik|1980|p=59}} ("Bridge of the Dharma"), the third highest rank awarded to Buddhist artists, and in 1704 he moved to Edo,{{sfn|Carpenter|2012|pp=25–26}}{{sfn|Metropolitan Museum of Art|2000|p=312}} where lucrative commissions were more readily available. His early masterpieces, such as his Irises are generally dated to this period. 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).{{sfn|Carpenter|2012|pp=25–26}} These are seen as important influences in his work from that period, the Rough Waves painting for example.{{sfn|Carpenter|2012|pp=25–26}}

In 1709, he moved back to Kyoto.{{sfn|Carpenter|2012|pp=25–26}}{{sfn|Metropolitan Museum of Art|2000|p=312}} He built a house with an atelier on Shinmachi street in 1712 and lived there the last five years of his life.{{cite web |url=http://www.moaart.or.jp/en/facility/korinyashiki/ |title=Korin's Residence (reconstructed) |author= |date= |website= |publisher=MOA Museum of Art |access-date=September 20, 2017 |quote=}}{{sfn|Pekarik|1980|p=59}} His masterpieces from that last period, such as the Red and White Plum Blossoms screens, are thought to have been painted there.

Kōrin died famous but impoverished{{sfn|Pekarik|1980|p=59}} on June 2, 1716, at the age of 59. His grave is located at the Myōken-ji temple in Kyoto.{{cite web |url=http://www.kyohaku.go.jp/eng/special/koremade/20151010_rinpa.html |title=RINPA: The Aesthetics of the Capital |author= |date= |website= |publisher=Kyoto National Museum |access-date=September 17, 2017 |quote=}} His chief pupils were Tatebayashi Kagei, Watanabe Shikō and Fukae Rōshu,{{sfn|Nussbaum|Roth|2005|p=561}} but the present knowledge and appreciation of his work are largely due to the early efforts of his brother Kenzan{{sfn|Carpenter|2012|p=23}} and later Sakai Hōitsu, who brought about a revival of Kōrin's style.

{{nihongo|Irises|紙本金地著色燕子花図}} is a pair of six-panel byōbu folding screens made circa 1701–1705,{{sfn|Daugherty|2003|p=42}} using ink and color on gold-foiled paper.{{cite web |url=http://www.nezu-muse.or.jp/en/collection/detail.php?id=10301 |title=Irises |author= |date= |website= |publisher=Nezu Museum |access-date=September 16, 2017 |quote=}} 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. 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.

KORIN-Irises-L.jpg|

KORIN-Irises-R.jpg|

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, where they are exhibited occasionally (last time, from April 12 to May 14, 2017{{cite web |url=http://www.nezu-muse.or.jp/en/exhibition/past2017_n03.html |title=Special Exhibition: Irises and Mountain Stream in Summer and Autumn|author= |date= |website= |publisher=Nezu Museum |access-date=September 17, 2017 |quote=}}). They are listed as a National Treasure of Japan.

Kōrin made a similar work about five{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39664 |title=Irises at Yatsuhashi (Eight Bridges) |author= |date= |website= |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=September 20, 2017 |quote=}} to twelve{{cite web |url=http://www.nezu-muse.or.jp/popup_e2.html |title=National Treasure Irises of the Nezu Museum and Eight-Bridge of the Metropolitan Museum of Art |author= |date= |website= |publisher=Nezu Museum |access-date=September 20, 2017 |quote=}} years later, another pair of six-panel screens, known as {{nihongo|Irises at Yatsuhashi|八橋図屏風}}. 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.

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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.

Both Irises screens were displayed together for the first time in almost a century 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.

{{nihongo|Wind God and Thunder God|紙本金地著色風神雷神図}} is a pair of two-folded screens{{cite web |url=http://www.tnm.jp/modules/r_collection/index.php?controller=dtl&colid=A11189.1&t=search |title=Wind God and Thunder God |author= |date= |website= |publisher=Tokyo National Museum |access-date=September 17, 2017 |quote=}} made using ink and color on gold-foiled paper.{{cite web |url=http://www.emuseum.jp/detail/100321/001?word=Wind+god+and+Thunder+God&d_lang=en&s_lang=en&class=&title=&c_e=®ion=&era=&cptype=&owner=&pos=1&num=1&mode=simple¢ury= |title=Wind God and Thunder God |author= |date= |website= |publisher=National Institutes for Cultural Heritage |access-date=September 17, 2017 |quote=}} 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.

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Wind God and Thunder God Screens by Ogata Korin.png{{!}}Kōrin's version

Wind God and Thunder God Screens by Tawaraya Sotatsu hi-res.png{{!}}Sōtatsu's original

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The screens measure 421.6 by 464.8 centimetres (166 in × 183 in) each. 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. 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.

{{nihongo|Red and White Plum Blossoms|紙本金地著色紅白梅図}} is a pair of two-panel byōbu folding screens painted by Kōrin using ink and color on gold-foiled paper.{{sfn|Nezu Museum|2015|p=iv}} A late masterpiece, completed probably circa 1712–1716 in his atelier in Kyoto, it is considered his crowning achievement.{{cite web |url=http://www.moaart.or.jp/en/collections/053/ |title=Red and White Plum Blossoms |author= |date= |website= |publisher=MOA Museum of Art |access-date=September 27, 2017 |quote=}} The simple, stylized composition of the work{{sfn|Carpenter|2012|p=146}} depicts a patterned flowing river with a white plum tree on the left and a red plum tree on the right.{{sfn|Hayakawa|Shirono|Miura|Matsushima|2007|p=58}} The plum blossoms indicate the scene occurs in spring.{{sfn|Nikoru|1997|p=291}}

No documentation exists from before the 20th century on the commission or provenance of the screens.{{sfn|Daugherty|2003|p=39}} 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 1907{{efn|「尾形光琳筆 梅花図屏風に就て」 "Ogata Kōrin hitsu Baika Zu Byōbu ni tsuite", in Kokka (『國華』), issue 201, p. 569 (1907)}} is the first known publication about them, and their first public display came in a 200th-anniversary exhibition of Kōrin's work in 1915.{{sfn|Daugherty|2003|p=43}}

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.

Red and White Plum Blossoms.jpg|

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.{{sfn|Daugherty|2003|p=39}} Along with the rest of Okada's collection,{{sfn|Daugherty|2003|pp=39–40}} 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.{{Cite web |title=Waves of Matsushima |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/story/waves-of-matsushima/bAVBtYlilE44LQ |access-date=2024-01-26 |website=Google Arts & Culture |language=en}}

{{center|Byōbu folding screens}}

File:Cranes, Pines, and Bamboo I.jpg|Cranes, Pines, and Bamboo

File:Autumn Grasses.jpg|Autumn Grasses

File:Black Pines and Maple Tree.jpg|Black Pines and Maple Tree (Important Cultural Property)

File:The Poet Bo Juyi.jpg|The Poet Bo Juyi

File:Waves at Matsushima.jpg|Waves at Matsushima

File:Cranes (left).png|Cranes

File:Cranes (right).png|Cranes

File:Cranes, Pines, and Bamboo II.jpg|Cranes, Pines, and Bamboo

File:Tai Gong Wang by Ogata Korin (Kyoto National Museum).jpg|Tai Gong Wang (Important Cultural Property)

File:雪松群禽図屏風.png|Ducks and Snow-Covered Pine Trees

File:The Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.png|The Thirty-Six Immortal Poets (Important Art Object)

File:Rough Waves by Ogata Kōrin.jpg|Rough Waves

File:Bamboo and plum tree.png|Bamboo and plum tree (Important Cultural Property)

File:Flowering Plants in Autumn.jpg|Flowering Plants in Autumn

File:Nakamura Kuranosuke by Ogata Korin (Yamato Bunkakan).jpg|Portrait of Nakamura Kuranosuke (Important Cultural Property)

File:The Empress Akikonomu.jpg|The Empress Akikonomu

File:The Tales of Ise, Yatsuhashi.jpg|The Tales of Ise, Yatsuhashi

File:The Immortal Qin Qao.jpg|The Immortal Qin Qao

File:Cormorant Fishing by Ogata Kōrin.jpg|Cormorant Fishing

File:Tiger and Bamboo.jpg|Tiger and Bamboo

File:Hotei by Ogata Kōrin.jpg|Hotei

File:WritingBox EightBridges OgataKorin.JPG|{{Interlanguage link|Writing Box with Eight Bridges|lt=|ja|八橋蒔絵螺鈿硯箱|WD=}} (National Treasure)

File:Square dish. Design of poet watching wild geese in underglaze iron brown (front).jpg|Square dish, design of poet watching wild geese (Important Cultural Property)

File:Square Dish with Courtier Gazing at a Waterfall Design.jpg|Square dish with courtier gazing at a waterfall

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{{Portal|Japan|Arts|Visual arts|History}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last=Carpenter |first=John T. |year=2012 |title=Designing Nature: The Rinpa Aesthetic in Japanese Art |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oEredpAqjq0C |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-1-58839-471-2 |location=New York}}
• Randall, Doanda. (1960). Kōrin. New York: Crown. [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/001487440 OCLC 1487440]
• {{cite book |last=Pekarik |first=Andrew |year=1980 |title=Japanese Lacquer, 1600–1900 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Frw1vEmyHSMC |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-0-87099-247-6 |location=New York}}
• {{cite book |last=Nikoru |first=C. W. |title=Japan: The Cycle of Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u1OMoSSSEkQC |year=1997 |publisher=Kodansha International |isbn=978-4-7700-2088-8}}
• {{citation |url=http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/153737 |format=PDF |title=Bridge of Dreams: the Mary Griggs Burke collection of Japanese art |year=2000 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries |ref={{harvid|Metropolitan Museum of Art|2000}}}}
• {{cite book |last1=Nussbaum |first1=Louis-Frédéric |first2=Käthe |last2=Roth |year=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2QnPijAEmEC |title=Japan encyclopedia |location=Cambridge |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-01753-5 |oclc=58053128}}
• {{cite journal |last=Daugherty |first=Cynthia |title=Historiography and Iconography in Ogata Korin's Iris and Plum Screens |publisher=Kyushu Institute of Technology |journal=Ningen Kagaku Hen |issue=16 |date=March 2003 |pages=39–91 |url=https://ds.lib.kyutech.ac.jp/dspace/retrieve/2431/Daugherty16.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223170044/https://ds.lib.kyutech.ac.jp/dspace/retrieve/2431/Daugherty16.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 23, 2016}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Hayakawa |first1=Yasuhiro |last2=Shirono |first2=Seiji |last3=Miura |first3=Sadatoshi |last4=Matsushima |first4=Tomohide |last5=Uchida |first5=Tokugo |title=Non-Destructive Analysis of a Painting, National Treasure in Japan |journal=Advances in X-ray Analysis |volume=50 |pages=57–63 |publisher=JCPDS-International Centre for Diffraction Data |year=2007 |issn=1097-0002 |url=http://www.icdd.com/resources/axa/VOL50/V50_07.pdf |access-date=September 16, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220192421/http://www.icdd.com/resources/axa/VOL50/V50_07.pdf |archive-date=December 20, 2016 |url-status=dead}}
• {{citation |title=Irises and Red and White Plum Blossoms. Secret of Korin's Designs |year=2015 |publisher=Nezu Museum |ref={{harvid|Nezu Museum|2015}}}}

{{refend}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Ogata Korin}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ogata, Korin}}

Category:1658 births

Category:1716 deaths

Category:17th-century Japanese painters

Category:18th-century Japanese painters

Category:Botanical illustrators

Category:Buddhist artists

Category:History of art in Japan

Category:Japanese lacquerware artists

Category:Japanese textile artists

Category:18th-century textile artists

Category:17th-century textile artists

Category:Artists from Kyoto

Category:Rinpa school