Honami Koetsu
Hon'ami Kôetsu was an artist, known chiefly for his calligraphy, pottery, and lacquerware. Along with Tawaraya Sôtatsu, with whom he worked closely, he is considered one of the forerunners of the Rinpa style, which was founded by Ogata Kôrin roughly a century later explicitly imitating and reviving the style of Kôetsu and Sôtatsu.
Along with Sôtatsu, Kôetsu had a strong interest in Noh, and in the aesthetics, themes, motifs, and techniques of Heian period court arts. Much of his work made reference to, or otherwise related to, poetry and calligraphy in the Heian period style, Heian period modes of employing decorative papers, the Tale of Genji or other Heian narratives, or the Noh theatre, which itself very frequently refers back to Heian period stories or characters.
Kôetsu was granted a plot of land in Takagamine in 1615 by Tokugawa Ieyasu. There, in the hills to the northwest of Kyoto proper, Kôetsu and Sôtatsu established an artists' colony that included Kôetsu's extended family, and roughly fifty other households. The members of the community included papermaker Kamishi Sôji; lacquer specialist Tsuchida Sôtaku; Kôetsu's nephew, textile merchant Ogata Sôhaku; brushmaker Fudeya Myôki; and members of the Suminokura and Gotô families. Most, if not all, of the members of the community were commoners (chônin - townspeople), but were rather prominent and influential townsmen; whether for Kôetsu or Sôtatsu specifically, or for the community more generally, Takagamine saw not infrequent visits from noblemen, and on at least one occasion, in 1638 (the year after Kôetsu's death), from the Empress Tôfukumon'in.
References
- Lillehoj, Elizabeth. Art and Palace Politics in Early Modern Japan 1580s-1680s. Brill Publishing, 2011. pp176-184.
