Irises
As I walked through my neighborhood yesterday (one of those cool but not cold, tantalizingly Almost Spring days) I spotted something that immediately took my mind to Ogata Korin, the 17th and 18th Century Rimpa Master (I’m sure this happens to us all). Here’s what I saw yesterday. You can see the sidewalk running by on the left-hand side of the photo:
Irises. 7th Avenue South. March 9, 2013.
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This is a detail of one of Korin’s (1658-1716) six-panel screens (byoubu – 屏風), Irises:
Korin (1658-1716). Irises.
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Last month, in the post immediately preceding this one, I went to town with a homage to and much nostalgia about Kamisaka Sekka (1866-1942), also a Rimpa Master, but who brought the school into and modernized it for and with the 20th Century. Sekka painted irises, too, in the 20th Century. Here’s one of his “Irises,” which is a photo of a Sekka post card I bought about ten years ago at the Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art:
Sekka (1866-1942). Irises.
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Almost five years ago, in May 2008, I guided a group of University of Alabama-Birmingham students, a history class, through Kyoto, Nara, Himeji, Hiroshima and elsewhere in southern Japan. I can’t take all credit because I merely worked together as a team with the class’s excellent professor. At any rate, we — the professor and I — took the class to Kinkaku-ji, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, in Kyoto. One of those “must see” places in Kyoto. I had been many times before. Even though the day was a bit overcast, the irises were bang-on beautiful. It should be noted: both Korin and Sekka were from Kyoto and would have certainly seen the irises of Kinkaku-ji, as I have and you are about to . . .
Kinkaku-ji. Kyoto. May 2008.
If you look at the extremely right-hand side, mid-picture, of the photo above, you’ll see irises. The photos below are of those same irises.
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Irises at Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto. May 2008.
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Irises and Kinkaku-ji. Kyoto. May 2008.
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*There are both wet and dry-land iris varieties.
LetsJapan 