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Fukae Roshû, 1699-1757
Autumn Flowers with Deer
Color on paper
While the samurai class, de facto rulers
of Japan from 1185 to 1868, lavished its patronage on ink monochrome
painters, two Kyoto artists, Hon'ami Kôetsu (1558-1637)
and Tawaraya Sôtatsu (active 1602-1630), working in the
early seventeenth century, revived the indigenous yamato-e
tradition that had languished for four hundred years in the comparative
isolation of the imperial court. Kôetsu and Sôtatsu
were eventually recognized as founders of a new tradition of
painting referred to as the Rinpa school. This term is derived
from the last syllable ("rin") of the name of Ogata
Kôrin (1658-1716), a remarkable talent working in the early
eighteenth century who was largely responsible for refining Kôetsu
and Sôtatsu's idioms into what would become the Rinpa style.
Fukae Roshû, the painter of this
work, was a contemporary of Kôrin, and many elements of
this painting demonstrate Roshû's indebtedness to the Rinpa
tradition. Deer were a favorite subject of Sôtatsu, and
Roshû's rendition may have been copied from one of the
master's drawings. Seasonal flowers and grasses rendered in vivid
colors and skillfully arranged in arching patterns are one of
the hallmarks of the Rinpa style. Roshû even borrowed Kôrin's
practice of deliberately placing his round seal in a prominent
location.
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