尾形光琳

Ogata Korin is the central figure of the Rinpa school, a decorative tradition that runs from Sotatsu through Korin to Sakai Hoitsu and beyond. His genius lay in reducing natural forms to bold, rhythmic patterns that hover between representation and abstraction.

Born in 1658 in Kyoto to a wealthy textile merchant, he grew up surrounded by fine fabrics and lived extravagantly in his youth, burning through his inheritance. Financial pressure eventually pushed him to professionalize his art.

He drew inspiration from Hon'ami Koetsu and Tawaraya Sotatsu, the founders of what would later be called the Rinpa school, and reinterpreted their decorative vocabulary with greater formal clarity. His most celebrated work, the Irises screens (Kakitsubata-zu), renders clusters of irises against a gold ground using only two colors, blue and green. The rhythmic repetition and spacing of the flower clusters create a visual music that anticipates modern pattern design.

Red and White Plum Blossoms, a pair of screens showing gnarled plum trees flanking a stylized stream, is another pinnacle. The stream's silver-and-black surface, rendered with a technique called tarashikomi (pooling wet pigment), adds an element of controlled chance to an otherwise calculated composition.

Korin also excelled in lacquerwork, textile design, and ceramic decoration, reflecting his family's craft background. His designs for writing boxes and kimono patterns demonstrate that the Rinpa aesthetic operated across media, blurring the line between fine and decorative art centuries before modernism made this a program.

He spent time in Edo (Tokyo) seeking patronage but returned to Kyoto, where he died in 1716 at fifty-eight. His influence was revived by Sakai Hoitsu a century later and continues to shape Japanese decorative art and international graphic design.