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paintings in a Rinpa mode. Having elevated the status of   the end of the Edo period, Kiitsu had a considerable impact
               his inspiration from the previous century, Hōitsu then   on noted artists of the nihonga (modern “Japanese-style”
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               published a compendium of his own works entitled Oson’s   painting) movement, such as Hishida Shunsō (1874  –  1911)
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               Drawing Manual (Oson gafu). This volume, with its       and Hayami Gyoshū (1894  – 1935), who were attracted by a
               sensitively rendered flowers in the “boneless” style and   style of painting that could utilize stylized natural motifs
               restrained use of tarashikomi, brought the publicly avail-  but still demonstrate the power of Japanese brushwork to
               able Rinpa repertoire to a new level of sophistication.  evoke the nuances of the seasons and reflective moods.

                   Persimmon Tree, a masterwork by Hōitsu in the Metro-
               politan’s collection, demonstrates how the artist distilled the   heirs to the r inpa Mantle
               techniques of the Rinpa tradition by juxtaposing the intense   Unlike Hōitsu and Kiitsu, who reestablished Rinpa in Edo,
               orange of the fruit against the modulated, dappled texture   nakamura Hōchū (d. 1819) lived and worked in the Kansai

               of the tree bark, achieved using the tarashikomi technique   region, which includes the cities of Kyoto, osaka, and Kobe.
               (cat. 63). In contrast to the somber, late autumn ethos   Trained as a literati painter (in a relaxed, Chinese mode
               of the Metropolitan’s work, with its extensive expanses of   of ink painting), Hōchū was on close terms with the noted
               blank space, Hōitsu’s hanging scroll of an arrowroot vine   artists Kimura Kenkadō (1736  – 1802) and Ike Gyokuran

               in moonlight captures the reflective mood of leaves being   (1727  – 1784), whose husband, Ike Taiga (1723  – 1776), was
               buffeted in the breeze on a warm summer evening (cat. 89).   himself a renowned painter. Hōchū was also a talented
               The verse that accompanies the painting, a love poem by   poet — he wrote haikai (seventeen-syllable seasonal verse)
               Toyama Mitsuzane (1756  – 1821), complements the overall   as well as kyōka (thirty-one-syllable witty verse) — and

               sultry mood (for a translation, see p. 188).            through these poetry connections was granted numerous
                   Hōitsu’s protégé, Suzuki Kiitsu (1796  – 1858), began his   commissions to illustrate poetry anthologies.
               apprenticeship with the master in 1813, when he moved into   Geographically remote from Hōitsu — he was born in
               the Hōitsu household. He was later adopted and received   Kyoto but spent most of his life in osaka — Hōchū reen-

               his family name from Suzuki Reitan (1782  – 1817), a samurai   gaged with the work of Kyoto’s favorite son, Kōrin, and bor-
               who served the Sakai clan and who also was a painting stu-  rowed motifs and styles from the Rinpa repertoire, which
               dent of Hōitsu’s. Although Kiitsu emulated his teacher’s   he then reinvigorated in a more decorative, playful, and
               style, later in life he sought a fresher, more modern feel in   sometimes even humorous vein. Taking the tarashikomi tech-

               his work, often employing a vibrant palette of pinks, purples,   nique to new extremes, he mixed colorful pigments some-
               and incandescent blues that had never before been seen, not   times to almost psychedelic effect, as seen, for instance, in
               even in the colorful Rinpa tradition. For instance, Kiitsu   a screen with the flowers of the twelve months (cat. 87). In
               relied on two radically different modes to depict morning   the early 1800s Hōchū temporarily moved to Edo, and in

               glories — one renders the flowers in phosphorescent blue,   1802 he produced the influential Kōrin Painting Manual
               the other in modulated tones of ink — but each is magiste-  (Kōrin gafu), an homage to the artist who inspired his
               rial in its own way (cats. 91, 92). Having lived almost to   own creativity. At the same time, the manual was astute
        a history of rinpa



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