Page 26 - Designing_Nature_The_Rinpa_Aesthetic_in_Japanese_Art Metropolitan Museum PUB

bridge itself are painted over the surface of gold leaf; in the one would normally expect to see the reverse chronol-
other version, the gold leaf was carefully applied around ogy in terms of how the artist developed the composition,
the irises. The leaves and flowers in the Metropolitan with the more abstract version following the one with con-
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screens are also slightly more elongated vertically than crete allusions to the bridge across the iris marsh, and per-

those in the nezu screens. Close examination of the haps that is what happened, considering that all evidence
Metropolitan’s screens reveals that the artist created the for the latter scenario has disappeared. Still, the standard
shapes of the flower petals by first drawing them in a thin iconography of irises with a plank bridge was by that time

ink outline atop the gold-leaf surface, followed by an appli- well established as a popular decorative motif for lacquer-
cation of a white pigment (most likely gofun, made from ware and textiles. Another way of interpreting the differ-
ground seashells), over which the azurite blue was thickly ences between the two is the possibility that Yatsuhashi
applied to cover the underpainting. The stamens were was created for a patron with a preference for conspicuous
created using an iron-based pigment, which on the surface literary symbolism.

seems to differ from that used in the earlier version. From Although Irises at Yatsuhashi is not dated and its prove-
a technical point of view, Yatsuhashi gave Kōrin the oppor- nance is impossible to trace back to an original patron, it is
tunity to test his skills at the tarashikomi (“dripping in”) generally assumed, based on the style of the artist’s signa-

technique, which he employed less frequently than either ture, that the screens were created at least five to ten years
his Rinpa predecessors or successors. note, in particular, later than the nezu Irises. Their exact date, however, is a designing nature
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how the planks of the bridge convey the impression of matter of debate among scholars, some of whom believe
age-worn wood overgrown with lichen and moss. they were produced during Kōrin’s stay in Edo from about
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