Page 170 - Designing_Nature_The_Rinpa_Aesthetic_in_Japanese_Art Metropolitan Museum PUB

artist Hattori Tadasaburō and his contemporaries, for example, embraced a style
that can be seen as looking back to Rinpa, yet it equally partakes of the vogue for
Art Nouveau then being promoted by international expositions (cats. 96 – 99).

A vase with lily blossoms by Hattori (who even styled himself “Kōrin”) bears
the imperial chrysanthemum crest (cat. 97), a reminder that, following the 1867
Meiji Restoration, which returned the emperor to a position of true power in

Japan, the imperial household once again saw cultural patronage as a preroga­
tive of the throne.
Shibata Zeshin, a master of painting and lacquer design, worked in a variety
of styles, but there are distinct hints of Rinpa in his atmospheric Autumn Grasses
in Moonlight (cat. 100). The screens reflect Zeshin’s mastery of the naturalistic

depiction of plants and insects — even in the intractable medium of lacquer — and
in that regard he shares with Hōitsu, Kiitsu, and Koson an ability to faithfully
re­create the shapes and textures of a garden setting. At the same time, in

Zeshin’s graphic rendering of the full moon against a softly glimmering silver
sky and the subtle mottled ink and lacquer of the autumn trees and flowers,
we can observe how the artist was indebted to and drew inspiration from a
long tradition of Rinpa floral painting.

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