Gold & Ink · Pair of six-panel folding screens · Ogata Kōrin, after 1709
Irises at Yatsuhashi (Eight Bridges)
A love poem, told with no people at all.
The Work
Blue irises and a zigzag plank bridge on gold leaf — a scene from The Tales of Ise, told with no people at all, only flowers and a bridge.
Look Closer
The same clusters of iris repeat like a beat in music. The painting reads almost like a textile pattern.
The Artist
Kōrin was born in 1658 to a wealthy Kyoto textile merchant family. As a young man he is said to have spent the family fortune.
The Artist
He made his name as a painter only in his forties. His younger brother was the potter Kenzan, and the two decorated ceramics together.
The Story
At Yatsuhashi, the poet Ariwara no Narihira saw irises and wrote of the wife he left behind — the first syllables spelled "kakitsubata," iris.
Japan at the Time
Around 1700, merchants in Kyoto and Osaka grew rich, and townspeople — not samurai — began to lead the culture.
Meanwhile, in the World
Around the same time in Florence, Bartolomeo Cristofori was building the first pianos.
Afterward
The decorative tradition is called Rinpa, after Kōrin's name. A century later, Sakai Hōitsu revived his style out of admiration.
Listen while you look
This work stays on screen for about ten minutes in the full hour of Gold & Ink, with Irises At Eight Bridges and Letters To The Capital.
Take this print home
This work is in the Gold & Ink wallpaper pack — all six prints, sized for phone and desktop.
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