Riko Imahashi

Among the paintings left by Sakai Hoitsu (1760-1828), a late-Edo-period painter known for reviving the Rinpa (or Korin) school of painting in the city of Edo, is a singular work entitled Kannon (i.e., the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara). This work differs from the usual Oriental "white-robed Avalokitesvara" paintings in that Kannon is not shown holding in her hand either the standard lotus flower, or sprig of willow in a water jar. Rather, in front of her and to the viewer's right there appears a porcelain celadon vase in which five summer flowers - hollyhocks, pinks, lychnises, hydrangeas, and lilies - have been arranged. In contrast to india ink paintings of Kannon, the flowers in Hoitsu's work are richly colored, attracting and holding the viewer's gaze. It is known that the creation of Kannon was connected to the hundredth anniversary of the death of Ogata Korin (1658-1716). Korin was the prime mover behind the earlier flourishing of the Rinpa school and the painter most highly regarded by Hoitsu, who donated the work to Korin's family temple, Myoken-ji, in Kyoto, where it remains today. It has therefore traditionally been inferred that Hoitsu "arranged" the flowers in the vase in commemoration of Korin's death anniversary and that he used summer flowers because Korin died in June. What has never been clear, however, is why the five flowers noted above were chosen ; indeed, Hoitsu's Flowers in a Vase, painted for the same anniversary, contains the identical five kinds of flowers arranged in a water jar. Hoitsu obviously had a reason for selecting them. In my paper, I will attempt to discern what Hoitsu's intended meaning may have been. The particular flower or bird, or the particular combination of flowers and birds, found in an Oriental flower-and-bird painting ordinarily has an auspicious meaning associated with it, one that the members of the painter's audience will usually be able to identify owing to their shared cultural experience. No traditional, specific meaning, however, can be discerned in the combination of the five summer flowers in Hoitsu's two paintings. To unlock the meaning, I have investigated how the five flowers have been used in classical tanka and haiku poetry - in which Hoitsu himself was unusually well versed - beginning with the eighth-century Man'yoshu. For example, the combination of hollyhocks and lilies has traditionally meant, "We will meet in the next world" when it appears in classical poetry. I found other meanings for other groupings of the five flowers in question. In the course of my research it became clear that Hoitsu clearly did not use the five flowers merely to commemorate Korin's death in the summer ; being familliar with Japanese history and literature, Hoitsu put together his combination with scruplous care in order to express the meaning he desired. Another point of interest is that Korin was particularly fond of the hollyhock and, in fact, replaced his family crest with one depicting a stylized version of this flower. This helps explain why, in Hoitsu's two paintings, the hollyhock is placed highest in the shin position, the all-important central position in traditional flower arrangement. Modern critics tend to view the beautiful flower arrangements in the paintings of the Rinpa school, including the two works discussed here, as random combinations. This evaluation focuses on the beauty of the paintings' form, but essentially denies their interpretive value. However, I believe that the surprising hidden meanings woven into the paintings of the Rinpa school are one of the greatest sources of the paintings' appeal.

During the last years of his life, Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), the most well known ukiyoe artist of the late Edo period, left us an original painting entitled Watermelon, now in the collection of the Imperial Household Agency. Over the years numerous researchers have assessed the unusual shape and composition of the watermelon in the painting as striking evidence of Hokusai's originality. However, I question whether this repeated assessment would have been made if Hokusai had not included his signature, which is clearly evident in the painting. Eastern paintings of vegetables and fruit are commonly known as "Vegetable drawings"(sosai-zu) and are considered as belonging to the broad category of fower-and-bird pictures. With a style far removed from that of traditional vegetable drawings, however, Hokusai's Watermelon evokes among viewers a feeling contrary to what they might have expected from such a painting. Eastern flower-and-bird paintings traditionally have something in them that allows a hidden meaning to be drawn out from animals or plants depicted. Similarly, we need to investigate whether or not the watermelon in Hokusai's painting-considering the unexpectedness of its style-is imbued with a hidden meaning. To corroborate my interpretation of Watermelon, I have made use of the painting entitled Tanabata by Sakai Hoitsu (1761-1828). Hoitsu's painting is not a portrayal of the modern-day Japanese celebration known as Tanabata, or Star Festival, but rather depicts Tanabata's predecessor, Kikkoden, a ceremony carried out by the imperial court beginning in the eighth century, which in turn had its origins in early China. Kikkoden combined astrology with the romance of the Milky Way-the love story of the Herdsman (in Japanese tradition, the star Altair in the constellation Aquila) and the Weaver (the star Vega in the constellation Lyra). Japanese paintings entitled Kikkoden are usually genre paintings portraying the full year's worth of ceremonies ; it was tacitly understood from early times that depictions of the Kikkoden or Tanabata festivals within these paintings would show a scene from the seventh lunar month, when these festivals were held. In Hoitsu's Tanabata, however, human figures, ordinarily found in genre paintings, are missing. Only string given in offering and a basin filled with water-two items symbolic of the climax of Kikkoden-are depicted. By extracting these two motifs from Kikkoden, Hoitsu turns them into symbols for the ceremony. When Hokusai's Watermelon is viewed once again, this time in light of this understanding of Hoitsu's work, the congruence between the two paintings is striking. Since watermelons were in early China and Japan an important item given as an offering during Kikkoden, the watermelon half and the long, thin rind in Hokusai's painting can be seen as corresponding exactly to Hoitsu's basin and string. Further, we can discover of a bit of the romanticism involved in how the Japanese, inheritors of the romance of the Milky Way story from China, have since the time of the Man'yoshu "borrowed" the heroes of that story in their own love poetry. Essentially, then, Hokusai's Watermelon is a genre painting in which Kikkoden is represented by a watermelon, and is a narrative painting of the romance of the Milky Way.