ProvenioArt Intelligence
Sign InExplore
tokugawa shogunateedo japan

Ogata Korin — Red and White Plum Blossoms (Kōhaku Baizu), c. 1714–1716

Kōhaku Baizu (紅白梅図屏風, Red and White Plum Blossoms), c. 1714–1716, by Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716). Two-panel folding screen pair; ink, mineral pigments, and gold/silver leaf on paper; each screen 156 × 172 cm. MOA Museum of Art, Atami. The defining masterwork of the Rinpa tradition and a National Treasure of Japan.

Scholarly Significance

Anchor the Rinpa school with Ogata Korin's Red and White Plum Blossoms — the supreme late-Rinpa screen pair and the emblem of Japanese decorative painting.

Notes

  • ·Designated a National Treasure of Japan (Kokuho).
  • ·The central motif is a highly stylised stream rendered as a twisting band of black, white, and gold ink — unprecedented in Rinpa painting.
  • ·The plum trees are depicted using Korin's signature tarashikomi technique: pooling wet ink/pigment over a still-wet ground.
  • ·The two screens together frame the stream: red-blossom tree on the right screen, white-blossom tree on the left.
  • ·Painted in the last years of Korin's life; considered his final and greatest statement on the Rinpa decorative programme.
  • ·The work was likely commissioned for a private patron's interior; the MOA Museum acquired it in the 20th century.