Page 32 - Designing_Nature_The_Rinpa_Aesthetic_in_Japanese_Art Metropolitan Museum PUB

ho¯itsu and his Legacy in e do himself to Rinpa lest he squander his creative potential,
The most important and influential of Kōrin’s followers, and from about 1807 Hōitsu channeled his energies into
Sakai Hōitsu (1761 – 1828), scion of a prominent samurai Kōrin-style works. 52

lineage, never met his muse. Born in Edo forty-five years The beginning of a Rinpa “consciousness” can be pin-
after Kōrin’s death, Hōitsu later in his career helped trans- pointed, arguably, a century after Kōrin’s death with the
plant the Rinpa style there. Although Hōitsu lived most remarkable publication in 1815 of One Hundred Paintings by
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of his life in the eastern capital, his family’s wealth came Kōrin (Kōrin hyakuzu), compiled by Hōitsu with the assis-
from western Japan (his older brother was feudal lord of tance of his pupil Suzuki Kiitsu. This woodblock-printed
Himeji, where the Sakai clan’s castle still stands today). At work in two volumes, which boasted ninety-nine illustra-
the age of thirty-seven, Hōitsu shaved his head and took tions, was the result of Hōitsu’s immersive study of the sur-
vows to become a Buddhist monk, which it seems he did viving corpus of Kōrin paintings in Edo. Although he

more as a means to be released from official duties expected created the book as a personal tribute to an artist who had
of a sam urai than out of religious piety. nevertheless, he transformed his own artistic vision, One Hundred Paintings
left behind a corpus of colorful and exquisitely detailed by Kōrin also served as a vade mecum of the themes and styl-

paintings on Buddhist themes. A precocious and eventu- istic priorities of the Rinpa aesthetic. The volume (which
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ally prolific artist, Hōitsu studied various other styles, too, was followed in 1826 by a two-volume sequel with 103 illus-
including that of the orthodox Kano and Tosa schools; the trations) was reprinted in multiple editions and became a
flamboyant and colorful manner of ukiyo-e artists, whose ready source for artists of every affiliation, leading to a pro-
woodblock prints and paintings depict the urban demi- liferation of late nineteenth-century paintings in the Kōrin

monde, particularly courtesans and actors of the Kabuki style by professionals and amateurs alike.
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stage; as well as the Maruyama-Shijō school, which was In the course of his research, Hōitsu became aware
founded in the eighteenth century by Maruyama Ōkyo that Kōrin had drawn direct inspiration from the early

(1733 – 1795) and specialized in naturalistic depiction. This seventeenth-century works of Sōtatsu and Kōetsu. Hōitsu’s
broad exposure gave Hōitsu a solid foundation in brush- antiquarian sensibilities led him to compile a compendium
work, coloration, and composition that would hold him in of signatures and seals from works by Kōetsu, Sōtatsu and
good stead throughout his career as a Rinpa revivalist. his circle, and Kōrin and his brother Kenzan, which he
About 1800, Hōitsu began to create ink paintings using titled A Concise Compendium of Seals of the Ogata Lineage

the Rinpa techniques of mokkotsu (“boneless” painting, with- (Ogata-ryū ryaku inpu) (1815), thus finally giving a name
out ink outlines) and tarashikomi (“dripping in,” or mot- to what had previously been an unconnected group of indi-
tling), yet he was also still painting under the influence of viduals. (note that Hōitsu did not call it the “school of

his Shijō training, which emphasized the more naturalistic Kōrin,” or Rinpa, as it is now usually known but, rather,
motifs that would become increasingly common in all later the ogata lineage [Ogata-ryū], using Kōrin’s family name. ) designing nature
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Rinpa art. Hōitsu’s good friend and drinking companion, The compendium made available a ready source of models
the literati painter Tani Bunchō, convinced him to devote of signatures and seals for anyone wanting to create

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