Ogata Korin (1658-1716), Chrysanthemums, Edo period, early 18th century | 尾形光琳　菊図屏風　江戸時代　18世紀初頭

Rimpa meihinten [Rimpa: The Debut of Essential Rimpa Masterpieces in the Okada Museum of Art Collection], Mitsukoshi (Nihonbashi), Tokyo, 2015, cat. no. 12.

Rimpa no seika [The Essence of Rimpa], Okada Museum of Art, Hakone, 2015, cat. no. 13.

Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, ed., Kazari: Decoration and Display in Japan 15th-19th Centuries, London, 2002, p. 170-173, no. 62.

Tsuji Nobuo, "Ogata Korin's Chrysanthemum Screens" in Kokka [Flower of the Nation], vol. 1302, Tokyo, April 2004, p. 34-37.

Kobayashi Tadashi ed., Masterpieces of the Okada Museum of Art, vol. 1, Tokyo, 2013, p. 132, no. 96.

In his essay Thoughts on Korin (Zuihitsu Korin, 1965), the art historian Yashiro Yukio (1890-1975) writes: ‘Within all of Japanese art, if one were to consider art that is entirely Japanese, that is all too Japanese, then one would think of Korin. His art represents the epitome of Japanese magnificence, the full flowering of the dazzling culture of the Genroku era (1688-1704). Were I asked to identify just one figure to represent Japanese art, then without hesitation it would be Korin.”¹

This painting embodies the distinctive qualities of Korin’s renewal of Tawaraya Sotatsu’s (active circa 1600-1640) early 17th-century style (see Lots 1052, 1089 and 1092). Korin was born into an affluent Kyoto family that owned the high-class kimono fabric shop (gofuku-ya) under his father Soken (1621-1687). Their elite clientele included members who centered around Ogo (1754-1626), the wife of the second shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada (1579-1632), and their most important patron, Hidetada’s daughter, Tofukumon’in Masako (1607-1678), the wife of Retired Emperor Go Mizuno’o (1596-1680).² From an early age Korin had access to some of the wealthiest and culturally refined patrons of his time. He and his brother Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743) [see Lots 1023, 1105 and 1106] were avid enthusiasts of the Noh theatre and were deeply versed in Japanese literature.

It is not clear when Korin took to painting, but at some point, he encountered the work of Sotatsu. He studied his work intensively until he reached something of his own idiosyncratic style. Often described somewhat reductively as ‘decorative’, the richness of the imagery in Korin’s works, and the ability to reference poetic and literary themes by distilling only the key elements was revolutionary in the history of Japanese painting. Korin employed techniques to painting based on the application of patterns in textiles, such as the use of stencils to reproduce templates and motifs, completely unprecedented in painting traditions prior – his background in kimono textiles leading to a synthesis of the decorative, literary and prevailing taste for gold-leaf screens in the Edo period. This consolidation of abbreviated poetic signifiers and traditional decorative motifs formed what would become known as the Rimpa [lit. [Ko]rin school] style, and is perhaps one of the most visually recognisable Japanese styles of the early modern period.

Late autumn is depicted here, yet the frosts of the coming winter already mark their approach. Large blossoming chrysanthemums balance on dainty, sinuous stems, bending and bowing gracefully before the creep of ice. Contrast is made by the silhouetting of the dark and the bright green of the foliage. There is a sense of serenity, with harmony achieved by the balance between each cluster of chrysanthemums across the two screens. The flowerheads have been painted in relief moriage with an accretion of gofun (shell-white pigment).

The simple imagery belies the literary theme of the work. John T. Carpenter writes in Kazari: Decoration and Display in Japan 15th-19th Centuries (London, 2002): ‘a characteristic of Rimpa is its reliance on classical literary motifs to supply additional levels of interpretative depth’ and suggests that the horizontal bands of white call to mind Oshikochi no Mitsune’s popular waka poem:³ 

To pluck a stem

I shall have to guess,

for I cannot tell apart

white chrysanthemums

from the first frost⁴

Kokoroate ni

oraba ya oran

hatsushimo no

okimadowaseru

shiragiku no hana

^1. Yashiro Yukio, “Zuihitsu Korin, sono ichi,” Yamato bunka 33 (1960): 18-27; translated by Yukio Lippit in Yukio Lippit ed., The Artist in Edo, Washington, 2018, p. 75.

^2. Ibid., 75-76.

^3. Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, ed. Kazari: Decoration and Display in Japan 15th-19th Centuries, London, 2002, p. 173.

^4. Peter McMillian, One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets (London, 2018), p.35, no. 29.

展覽

《琳派名品展》，三越（日本橋），東京，2015年，編號12

《琳派の精華》，岡田美術館，箱根，2015年，編號13

出版

Nicole Coolidge Rousnaniere編，《Kazari: Decoration and Display in Japan 15th-19th Centuries 》，倫敦，2002年，頁170-173，編號62

《國華》，卷1302，東京，2004年4月，頁34-37

小林忠編，《岡田美術館名品撰》，卷1，東京，2013年，編號96

藝術史學家矢代幸雄（1890-1975年）於隨筆集《隨筆光琳》（1965年）中寫道：「若論純然和風，乃至過度和風之藝術，則必思光琳。其藝可謂日本美之極致體現，元祿時代（1688-1704年）絢爛文化的集大成者。倘若要推舉一人代表日本美術，則非光琳莫屬。」¹

此作體現光琳對俵屋宗達（約活動於1600-1640年間）十七世紀初期風格的革新詮釋（參見Lot 1052、1089及1092）。光琳出身京都富裕家庭，其父宗謙（1621-1687年）經營高級吳服店，主顧囊括德川幕府二代將軍秀忠（1579-1632年）正室阿江（1754-1626年），而最重要贊助者當屬秀忠之女德川和子（1607-1678年）後水尾天皇（1596-1680年）中宮。² 光琳自幼即接觸當世最具文化教養的精英階層，與其弟尾形乾山（1663-1743）[參見Lot 1023、1105及1106拍品]浸淫能劇與日本文學之深厚底蘊，皆反映於其藝術創作。

光琳習畫始於何時並無無明確記載，他曾深入研習宗達作品，終淬煉出獨特個人風格。其作品雖常被簡化歸類為「裝飾畫」，實則透過提煉關鍵元素以呼應詩歌文學主題之手法，於日本繪畫史頗具革命意義。光琳將服飾紋理技法轉化於繪畫，如運用型紙複製紋樣，為過往繪畫傳統未見，其吳服背景促成裝飾性、文學性與江戶時期金箔屏風主流審美之融合。此種凝練詩意符號與傳統紋樣的整合，遂形成後世所謂「琳派」風格，或可謂日本近世最具視覺辨識度的和風美學。

此處描繪深秋時節，然冬霜已悄然侵臨。叢菊纖細枝幹上托舉豐碩花冠，在寒霜蔓延間優雅俯仰。深淺綠葉交織成剪影對比，雙屏菊叢分布呈現靜謐和諧之感。花頭部分採用胡粉堆疊的「盛上」技法塑形。

簡約意象背後，蘊藏深厚的文學主題。約翰·卡本特於《Kazari: Decoration and Display in Japan 15th-19th Centuries 》（倫敦，2002年）中寫道：「琳派特質在於藉古典文學母題賦予多重詮釋深度」，並指出畫面橫向白色帶狀構圖，令人聯伴凡河內躬恆膾炙人口的和歌：³

欲折菊枝辨

卻恐誤霜痕

初寒侵素影

白菊與初霜⁴

^1. 矢代幸雄，《隨筆光琳，其一》，《大和文華》第33期，1960年，頁18-27。

^2.尤基奧·利皮特編，《The Artist in Edo》，華盛頓，2018年，頁75-76。

^3. Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere 編，《Kazari: Decoration and Display in Japan 15th-19th Centuries》，倫敦，2002年，頁173。

^4. 彼得·麥克米蘭編，《One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets》（倫敦，2018年），頁35，編號29。此處中文由英文轉譯。