Triptych: Bamboo, Pine and Plum
Date1615-1868
Maker
Sakai Hoitsu
Japanese, 1761-1828
Maker
Rimpa School
Japanese
Label TextCentered on a pine tree beneath the rising sun flanked by the other two “Friends of Winter,” plum and bamboo, this triptych is appropriate for display in the new year. The painter, Sakai Hōitsu, spent the early decades of the 1800s intensively studying the works of the earlier artist Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716) and is credited with reviving Kōrin's style, what would come to be called “Rinpa” (literally, “school of [Kō]rin"). He sought out and made copies of Kōrin's paintings and published books about his work. One of several trademarks of the Rinpa style is the use of a technique called tarashikomi whereby wet ink or pigment is applied on top of a still wet ground causing the colors to bleed into one another. It is apparent here in pooled malachite green, gold, and ink of the plum branch and the ink-on-ink treatment of the bamboo leaves.
Object number56.200.A
Published ReferencesFuller, Richard E. "Japanese Art in the Seattle Art Museum: An Historical Sketch." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1960 ("Presented in commemoration of the Hundredth Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and the United States of America"), no. 171cCredit LineGift of Mrs. John C. Atwood, Jr.
DimensionsOverall (incl endknobs & hanging braid): 72 1/16 × 18 3/4 in. (183 × 47.6 cm)
MediumInk and color on silk
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