Artworks

Irises

Artwork · Ogata Kōrin · c. 1701 · byōbu · Nezu Museum

The best work of Ogata Kōrin’s first Kyoto period, shortly after he was given the title Hokkyō: clusters of velvety irises painted without outlines (mokkotsu), their petals in flat areas of light and dark blue, arranged in rhythmic groups over the gold leaf of two six-panel screens — the episode of the Tales of Ise in which the exiled hero composes a poem on the iris (kakitsubata) at Yatsuhashi, reduced to its poetic essence. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 314–315, fig. 365. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.