Mastodawn

"Paulownias and Chrysanthemums," Sakai Hōitsu, early 1800s.

Sakai Hōitsu (1761-1829) was a practitioner of the Rinpa school of painting; basically images with gold backgrounds, with classical subject matter that catered to the tastes of the wealthy. He wasn't an original Rinpa, which was invented in the 1600s, but he revived it in the 19th century.

Sakai was a popular painter and teacher in his adulthood, but poor health drove him to be a Buddhist priest and live the last 21 years of his life in seclusion. During that time, though, he studied the works of other artists and released a collection of his own work in book form, from this this is taken.

The line down the middle is because this is a two-part screen, for well-off patrons in small city quarters. The contrast of paulownia, a summer flower, with chrysanthemum, an autumn flower, indicates the changing seasons, but in Japanese art paulownia is a symbol for resilience and chrysanthemums for virtuous governance, so it's vaguely political as well.

Happy Flower Friday!

From the Cleveland Museum of Art.

#Art #SakaiHoitu #Rinpa #JapaneseArt #AsianArt #FlowerFriday

Hotspur🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦Feb 7, 2025

"Flowers of a Hundred Worlds: River in Winter," Kamisaka Sekka, 1909-10.

Sekka (1866-1942) was a significant Japanese painter and the last to work in the Rinpa school. Rinpa, a style that was formalized in the 18th century, was revived in the mid-19th and melded with various Western art forms as Japan slowly opened up.

Sekka, for instance, actually traveled to Europe to study Western art styles and understand what the public was buying. He was very heavily influenced by Art Nouveau and incorporated that into his work, but also many modern styles as well. This was done largely for commercial reasons...Japanese merchants wanted art that would sell to Westerners, so they sought something that mixed traditional with modern.

This one, especially, has heavy Abstract influences...the birds and the river are just patches of color, and the reeds overhanging the river are just outlines.

Still, one has a sense of nature sleeping beneath the snow, and soon those plants might burst into bloom...

Happy Flower Friday! (Yes, I know there are no flowers, but I think this qualifies because of the title.)

From the Cleveland Museum of Art.

#Art #AsianArt #JapaneseArt #Rinpa #KamisakaSekka #FlowerFriday