Page 350 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

199 between the two halves of paired
Sakai Hóitsu (1761 -1828) screens. Hóitsu assiduously studied
Maple Trees in Spring and Autumn Kórin's painting and in 1815 published
a print of a pair of screens of maple
Dated 1818
Pair of six-panel screens; ink, color, trees having the same composition as
and gold on paper the present one. Hóitsu's painting
Each 163 x 366.4 (64 Vs x 14474) should thus be considered a copy of a
Private Collection, Osaka lost earlier work by Kôrin. Without
this original, it is difficult to deter-
mine where Hóitsu's copying ended
• Maple trees of spring and autumn
are contrasted in this bold composi- and his own invention began. But the
tion by Sakai Hóitsu, one of the first composition closely follows that of
practitioners of "Edo Rinpa" painting. the printed illustration of Kórin's 349
Brilliant green and scarlet leaves with painting, whereas the style of paint-
veins etched in stars of gold pigment ing seems to owe more to Hóitsu's
show Japanese maples in their most hand.
vivid colors. The patterned clusters of Hóitsu's signature and seals appear
leaves and snaking lines of the trunks on the outer edges of both screens,
are dramatically silhouetted against and there is an additional inscription
the shimmering flat background of on the autumn screen dating the
gold leaf. A swiftly flowing brook rip- painting to 1818. MM
pled in gold adds a sense of move-
ment to the scene. Tiny violets in the
spring screen (right) and blue bell-
flowers in the autumn screen (left)
also indicate the seasons. The contin-
uous space formed across the screens
by the bank and water contradicts
the temporal difference.
Opposing large motifs on the folding
screens was a well-established con-
vention by Hóitsu's time, and a signif-
icant part of his oeuvre follows this
format (see cat. 204). Perhaps no
Rinpa artist mastered this composi-
tional formula more successfully than
Ogata Kôrin, whose Red and White
Plums are the paradigm of visual play

199 (detail)