is a pair of six-panel folding screens (''

byōbu are Japanese folding screens made from several joined panels, bearing decorative painting and calligraphy, used to separate interiors and enclose private spaces, among other uses. History are thought to have originated in Han dynasty C ...

'') by the Japanese artist

Ogata Kōrin Ogata Kōrin ( ja, 尾形光琳; 1658 – June 2, 1716) was a Japanese landscape illustrator, lacquerer, painter, and textile designer of the Rinpa School. Kōrin is best known for his ''byōbu'' folding screens, such as '' Irises'' and ' ...

of the

Rinpa school is one of the major historical schools of Japanese painting. It was created in 17th century Kyoto by Hon'ami Kōetsu (1558–1637) and Tawaraya Sōtatsu (d. c.1643). Roughly fifty years later, the style was consolidated by brothers Ogata Kōrin ...

. It depicts an abstracted view of water with drifts of

Japanese iris The term "Japanese iris" encompasses three species of Irises cultivated in gardens or growing wild in Japan: ''hanashōbu'' ('' Iris ensata''), ''kakitsubata'' ('' Iris laevigata'') and ''ayame'' ('' Iris sanguinea''). Of these three species, ''I ...

es (''Iris laevigata''). The work was probably made circa 1701–1705, in the period of luxurious display in the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...

known as '' Genroku bunka'' (Genroku-era culture). The screens were held for over 200 years by the

Nishi Honganji is a Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist temple in the Shimogyō ward of Kyoto, Japan. It serves as the head temple of the sub-sect Honganji-ha. It is one of two Jōdo Shinshū temple complexes in Kyoto, the other being Higashi Hongan-ji, which is the h ...

Buddhist temple in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...

. They are now held by the

Nezu Museum Nezu may refer to: * Nezu Shrine, a Shinto shrine in Tokyo, Japan * Nezu Station, a railway station in Tokyo * Nezu (''My Hero Academia''), a character in the manga series ''My Hero Academia'' * Nezu, a character in the manga series ''Akira'' Peo ...

, and they are a

National Treasure of Japan Some of the National Treasures of Japan A is the most precious of Japan's Tangible Cultural Properties, as determined and designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (a special body of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Scien ...

. A similar pair of screens make by Ogata Kōrin about 5 to 12 years later depicting irises is held by the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. All four Irises screens were displayed together for the first time in almost a century in 2012 at the ''"Korin: National Treasure Irises of the Nezu Museum and Eight-Bridge of The Metropolitan Museum of Art"'' exhibition at the

. Both screens are inspired by an episode in ''

The Tales of Ise is a Japanese ''uta monogatari'', or collection of '' waka'' poems and associated narratives, dating from the Heian period. The current version collects 125 sections, with each combining poems and prose, giving a total of 209 poems in most version ...

'' In turn, copies of the screens are believed to have influenced the post-impressionist paintings of

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

, including his '' Irises''.

''Irises''

The screens are among the first works of Japanese painter and lacquerer

after he attained the rank of , the third highest rank awarded to artists. It depicts bunches of abstracted blue Japanese irises in bloom, and their green foliage, creating a rhythmically repeating but varying pattern across the panels. The similarities of some blooms indicate that a stencil was used. The work shows influence of

Tawaraya Sōtatsu was a Japanese furniture designer and painter of the Rinpa school. Sōtatsu is best known for his decorations of calligraphic works by his partner Hon'ami Kōetsu (1558–1637), and his spectacular and highly influential ''byōbu'' folding s ...

. It is typical of a new artistic school, , which takes its name from the last syllable of his given name. Kōrin adopts a very restrained palette, limited to the

ultramarine Ultramarine is a deep blue color pigment which was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder. The name comes from the Latin ''ultramarinus'', literally 'beyond the sea', because the pigment was imported into Europe from mines in Afg ...

blue of the flowers, the green of their foliage, and the gold background. The work was painted with ink and colour on paper, with squares of gold leaf applied around the painted areas to create a shimmering reflective background reminiscent of water. The deep blue was made from powdered . Each six-panel screen measures . The screens were probably made for the

Nijō family is a Japanese aristocratic kin group. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Nijō," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 42 retrieved 2013-7-7. The Nijō was a branch of the Fuji ...

, and were presented to the

Buddhist temple in

. They were sold by the temple in 1913.

''Irises at Yatsuhashi''

Kōrin made a similar work about 5 to 12 years later, another pair of six-panel screens, known as . This second pair of screens has been held by the

since 1953, and were last displayed in 2013. The second pair of iris screens, circa 1710–1716, was also painted with ink and color on gold-foiled paper, and measure 163.7 by 352.4 centimetres (64.4 in × 138.7 in) each. Unlike the earlier pair of iris screens, this later pair includes a depiction of an angular bridge, a more explicit reference to the literary work that inspired both artworks.

''The Tales of Ise''

Both pairs of screens are inspired by an episode in ''

'', where the unnamed protagonist of the story (most likely

Ariwara no Narihira was a Japanese courtier and '' waka'' poet of the early Heian period. He was named one of both the Six Poetic Geniuses and the Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses, and one of his poems was included in the ''Ogura Hyakunin Isshu'' collection. He i ...

) encounters the flowers near a rustic eight-plank bridge over a river. He was inspired to compose a romantic poem, a form of acrostic where the first syllable of each line spells out the Japanese word for iris, :

Influence

The screens clearly influenced the ''Irises'' paintings by

: he could never have seen the originals, which were still in Japan, but they were reproduced as woodcuts in a collection, the ''Kōrin Hyakuzu Kōhen''.

Notes

References

Irises
Nezu Museum
燕子花図
(''kakitsubata-zu''), Nezu Museum
八橋図屏風 ''Irises at Yatsuhashi (Eight Bridges)
', Metropolitan Museum of Art
''Designing Nature: The Rinpa Aesthetic in Japanese Art''
John T. Carpenter, Metropolitan Museum of Art p.210
''Irises: Vincent Van Gogh in the Garden''
Jennifer Helvey, p.118

Alan Gleason, artscape Japan
Irises (kakitsubata) by Ogata Korn
Columbia University * {{cite journal , last = Daugherty , first = Cynthia , title = Historiography and Iconography in Ogata Korin's Iris and Plum Screens , publisher = Kyushu Institute of Technology , journal = Ningen Kagaku Hen , issue = 16 , date = March 2003 , pages = 39–91 , url = https://kyutech.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=701&item_no=1&attribute_id=17&file_no=1 Byōbu Japanese paintings National Treasures of Japan Paintings in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Rinpa school

''Irises''

''Irises at Yatsuhashi''

''The Tales of Ise''

Influence

See also

Notes

References