was a Japanese painter of the Rimpa school

Rimpa school

, is one of the major historical schools of Japanese painting. It was created in 17th century Kyoto by Hon'ami Kōetsu and Tawaraya Sōtatsu...

. He is famous for reviving the style and popularity of Ogata Kōrin

Ogata Korin

was a Japanese painter of the Rinpa school.-Early life:Kōrin was born in Kyoto, to a wealthy merchant who had a taste for the arts and is said to have given his son some elementary instruction therein...

, and for creating a number of reproductions of Kōrin's work.

Family background

Hōitsu was born in Edo

Edo

, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...

; his father was the lord (daimyo) of Himeji Castle

Himeji Castle

When the han feudal system was abolished in 1871, Himeji Castle was put up for auction. The castle was purchased by a Himeji resident for 23 Japanese yen...

 in Harima Province

Harima Province

or Banshu was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is the southwestern part of present-day Hyōgo Prefecture. Harima bordered on Tajima, Tamba, Settsu, Bizen, and Mimasaka Provinces. Its capital was Himeji....

.

The Sakai daimyō clan originated in Mikawa province

Mikawa Province

is an old province in the area that today forms the eastern half of Aichi Prefecture. It was sometimes called . Mikawa bordered on Owari, Mino, Shinano, and Tōtōmi Provinces....

. They claim descent from Minamoto no Arichika. Arichika had two sons: one of them, Yasuchika, took the name of Matsudaira; and the other son, Chikauji, took the name of Sakai, and this is the ancestor of the Sakai clan. Sakai Hirochika, the son of Chikauji, had two sons as well; and the descendants of these two sons gave rise to the two principal branches of the clan.

A cadet branch of the Sakai is composed of the descendants of Sakai Masachika, who was a vassel of the Tokugawa -- Nobutada, Kiyoyasu et Hirotada. In 1561, Masachika was installed at Nishio Castle

Nishio Castle

is a Japanese castle located in Nishio, eastern Aichi Prefecture, Japan. At the end of the Edo period, Nishio Castle was home to the Ogyu Matsudaira, daimyō of Nishio Domain. The castle was also known as , , or .- History :...

 in Mikawa province, and the security of the castle was confided in him. In 1590, Sakai Shigetada, the son of Masachika, received the domain of Kawagoe

Kawagoe

Kawagoe may refer to two different locations in Japan:*Kawagoe, Mie, a town in Mie Prefecture*Kawagoe, Saitama, a city in Saitama Prefecture...

 in Musashi province

Musashi Province

was a province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo Prefecture, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province encompassed Kawasaki and Yokohama...

 (15,000 koku); then in 1601, he was installed at Umayabashi in Kōzuke province (35,000 koku). In 1749, Sakai Tadakiyo

Sakai Tadakiyo

, also known as Uta-no-kami, was a daimyō in Kōzuke Province, and a high-ranking government advisor and official in the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan....

 (1626–1681) and his descendants were transferred to Himeji in Harima province

Harima Province

or Banshu was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is the southwestern part of present-day Hyōgo Prefecture. Harima bordered on Tajima, Tamba, Settsu, Bizen, and Mimasaka Provinces. Its capital was Himeji....

 (150,000 koku); and they remained daimyō at Himeji until the Meiji period

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

.

Artistic career

Moving to Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

, Hōitsu began his studies in art in the Kanō school

Kano school

The ' is one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting. The Kanō school of painting was the dominant style of painting until the Meiji period.It was founded by Kanō Masanobu , a contemporary of Sesshū and student of Shūbun...

 before moving on to study under Utagawa Toyoharu

Utagawa Toyoharu

Utagawa Toyoharu was a Japanese printmaker and founder of the Utagawa school. Born in the Kansai region of Japan, he studied in Kyoto under Tsuruzawa Tangei, a Kanō school painter, before moving to Edo in 1760. There he continued his studies under Toriyama Sekien...

 of the ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e

' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...

 style. He later studied under Watanabe Nangaku of the Maruyama school and So Shiseki

Sō Shiseki

' was a Japanese painter of the Nagasaki and Nanpin schools.Originally from Edo, he spent some time in Nagasaki, where he studied under the Chinese painter Song Ziyan, who was known as Sō Shigan in Japanese...

 of the nanga style before finally becoming a painter of the Rinpa school.

Hōitsu became a Buddhist priest in 1797, and spent the last 21 years of his life in seclusion. During this time, he studied the work of Ogata Kōrin extensively, as well as that of Kōrin's brother Ogata Kenzan

Ogata Kenzan

, originally , and also known by the pseudonym Shisui, was a Japanese potter and painter, a younger brother of Ogata Korin. He was born in Kyoto in a rich marchant family and died in Edo . He had learned after the famous potter NONOMURA NINNSEI and made his own kiln. Since in 1712 a nobleman...

, and produced a number of reproductions of the brothers' works. He also produced two books of woodblock prints of the brothers' work, as well as one book of his own; these were titled Kōrin Hyakuzu (1815), Kenzan Iboku Gafu (1823), and Oson Gafu respectively.

Hōitsu's style shows elements of the realism of ukiyo-e, but resembles particularly the decorative style of Ogata Kōrin, which Hōitsu took major steps to revive.

Critical analysis

According to critic Robert Hughes

Robert Hughes

-Politicians:*Robert Hughes, Baron Hughes of Woodside , British Labour politician, MP for Aberdeen North*Robert Gurth Hughes , British Conservative politician, MP for Harrow West-Sportsmen:*Robert Hughes , of Stamford FC...

, the core achievement in painting during the Edo period was the allusive and delicate work of the Rinpa artists; and in Hōitsu's large folding screen Flowers and Grasses of Summer and Autumn, he says, "you can almost feel the wind bending the rhythmical pattern of stems and leaves against their silver ground." In another screen, Flowering Plants of Summer, Hughes suggested that Hoitsu "possessed epigrammatic powers of observation," as demonstrated in another screen, Flowering Plants of Summer, in which "the fronds bend and bow under the summer rain, weaving a delicate lattice of green against the now tarnished silver ground."

See also

• Metropolitan Museum of Art
  Metropolitan Museum of Art
  The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
  
  : "Persimmon Tree," late autumn 1816