The “Great Rinpa Exhibition”

To commemorate 350 years of the birth of Ogata Korin, Tokyo National Museum mounted the “Great Rinpa Exhibition” this autumn. It was a fabulous exhibition as one got to know what Rinpa is all about.

Rinpa in Japanese means a school of Kourin (Ogata Kourin who lived during the Edo Period from 1658 -1716). However Kourin did not create his own school like Kano or Tosa schools which started during the Edo period by genealogy or by followers but Rinpa existed without lineage or being taught the skills of or the characteristics of the style by the predecessors. Another word the Rinpa style was passed on not from person to person but by individual artists who lived in different ages who simply copied or took in that particular style of Korin.

The exhibition consisted of more than 200 works by six artists namely Honami Koetsu, Tawaraya Soutatsu, Ogata Kourin, Ogata Kanzan, Sakai Houitsu, and Suzuki Kiitsu. It was indeed a feast to the eyes as there were many works which are designated as national treasures and important cultural works of art.

The famous screen by Tawaraya Soutatsu of the “Wind and Thunder Gods” (National treasure) was on display together with a copy of the screen with composition modified by Ogata Kourin and of yet another version of the same screen by Sakai Houitsu. It is overwhelming to see all the three screens displayed side by side and interesting to discover that although each artist being inspired by the original screen of Soutatsu and trying to copy it on  a same scale each artist could not disguise their own characteristics. There was indeed distinctive difference in
the three screens of the same composition.