Hon’ami Kōetsu was a calligrapher and craftsman who frequently collaborated with the painter Tawaraya Sōtatsu, considered the first master of the Rinpa school. Kōetsu brushed seven poems from the autumn section of a poetry anthology onto dyed paper with motifs designed and printed in gold and silver by Sōtatsu.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Seal: 光悦

Inscription Translation

Kōetsu

Provenance

?-1966

(Harry C. Nail, Jr. [1909-1990], El Dorado, Arkansas, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1966-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 283 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 283 archive.org

Masterpieces of Japanese Art; [Catalogue of the Exhibition] October 4 Through November 30, 1969, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, 1969. Reproduced: pl. 53

Fischer, Felice and Edwin A. Cranston. The Arts of Honʼami Kōetsu: Japanese Renaissance Master. Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2000. Reproduced: cat. no. 8, p. 40

Sŏn, Sŭng-hye. The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2011. Reproduced: cat. no. 86

Lippit, Yukio, James T. Ulak, Keiko Nakamachi, Shunroku Okudaira, Ryō Furuta, Takeshi Noguchi, and Aya Ōta. Sōtatsu. Washington, DC : Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 2015. Reproduced: cat. no. 20, pp. 212-215

Exhibition history

Masterpieces of Japanese Art. Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, Texas (October 4-November 30, 1969).

Rimpa. Japan Society Gallery, New York, NY (organizer) (September 13-November 13, 1971).

Japanese Calligraphy. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (organizer) (October 10-November 26, 1978).

The Arts of Hon'ami Koetsu: Japanese Renaissance Master. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (organizer) (July 29-October 29, 2000).

Rimpa. The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (organizer) (August 21-October 3, 2004).

Asian Journeys: Collecting Art in Post-war America. The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (February 10-August 9, 2009).

The Lure of Painted Poetry: Cross-cultural Text and Image in Korean and Japanese Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 15-August 21, 2011).

Sotatsu: Making Waves. National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC (organizer) (October 24, 2015-January 31, 2016).

Early Rinpa (Japanese gallery rotation) 235. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 23, 2020-January 17, 2021).