Who was this person?
A late Edo painter and haikai poet. Born in Edo as the second son of the Sakai lords of Himeji, he later became a monk. He studied Ogata Kōrin’s style deeply, worked to honor Kōrin, and founded the Edo Rinpa school with a refined style adding an Edo sensibility. His masterpiece is the Summer and Autumn Grasses screens painted on the back of Kōrin’s Wind God and Thunder God screens.
| Name | Sakai Hōitsu (酒井抱一) |
|---|---|
| Born–died | 1761 – 1829 |
| Period | Edo period |
| Birthplace | Sakai (Himeji domain) residence, Edo |
| Also known as | Ōson, Ugean, Toryū |
| Main achievements |
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He was born at the Himeji domain's residence in Kanda, Edo, the second son of Sakai Tadamoto, heir of the Sakai lords of Himeji. His real name was Tadanao. The Sakai were a distinguished house that produced senior councilors and great elders, many of them lovers of culture; his elder brother Tadazane was known as a tea master and haikai poet. He grew up surrounded by the arts.
He came of age and was granted 1,000 koku. He was sometimes named provisional heir in case anything happened to his brother, but when his brother had a son that role ended. Refusing all offers of adoption from other daimyo houses, he lived as a younger son without an inheritance and devoted himself to the arts, studying haikai under Baba Zongi.
From about this time he studied under the ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Toyoharu, painting elegant pictures of beautiful women such as courtesans; some bear verses added by his acquaintance Ōta Nanpo. He also mixed closely with the Tenmei kyōka poets, composing under names like Shiriyake no Sarundo, and was respected among them as a young aristocrat.
His beloved elder brother Tadazane died. From this year he began a haiku diary, Keikyokan Kusō, and kept it up until late in life. In haikai he admired Takarai Kikaku, the urbane Edo poet, and lightly brought Kikaku's witty style into his own work.
He took the tonsure under the head of Nishi Hongan-ji and received a high clerical rank befitting a daimyo's son. The reasons are unclear, but generational change in the family and the Kansei Reforms are thought to have played a part. From the next year he called himself Hōitsu and, freed from samurai status, could devote himself to art.
The name Hōitsu came from words in the Chinese classic Laozi. From about this time his friendships with the painter Tani Bunchō and the calligrapher Kameda Bōsai deepened. He was also close to the kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjūrō, and he nurtured his own art amid the circles of Edo's cultural figures.
For the hundredth memorial of the poet Takarai Kikaku, whom he revered, he painted a hundred portraits of Kikaku, added Kikaku's verses and gave them away. This made him keenly aware of Ogata Kōrin, whose own centenary was approaching. Kōrin had once served the Sakai family, and some of his works remained in its collection.
He inquired with the family of Kōrin's descendants to research his genealogy and, combining it with earlier materials, published a compendium of seals and short biographies. Presenting the line running from Tawaraya Sōtatsu to Kōrin as a single school, he greatly influenced the later idea of Rinpa.
On the hundredth anniversary of Kōrin's death he held a memorial service, staged an exhibition of his surviving works and published its catalogue, Kōrin Hyakuzu. Inspired by Kōrin's masterpieces, Hōitsu built his own style, adding a light, haiku-like poetry to Rinpa's splendid decorativeness, and became founder of the Edo Rinpa school.
He hung a plaque reading Ukean at his home in Negishi and set up a studio where he produced works with his pupils. Teaming with the lacquer artist Hara Yōyūsai, he began full-scale production of lacquerware with maki-e based on his designs. Among his pupils was Suzuki Kiitsu, who later flourished.
Around this time he is said to have completed the Summer and Autumn Grasses screens, painting on silver ground autumn grasses swaying in the wind and summer grasses wet with rain on the back of Kōrin's masterpiece, the Wind God and Thunder God screens. With wind behind the Wind God and rain behind the Thunder God, it shows a brilliant correspondence and is his masterpiece.
He published Kenzan Iboku, a collection of works by Ogata Kenzan, Kōrin's brother, a potter and painter, and erected a monument near Kenzan's grave. He also helped repair Kōrin's grave, continuing to honor his predecessors. In his late years he worked on the series Birds and Flowers of the Twelve Months, the culmination of his career.
In the eleventh month of Bunsei 11 (January 1829) he died at Ukean in Negishi. His grave is at Tsukiji Hongan-ji. The collections of Kōrin's work he spread later reached Europe and influenced Japonisme. Edo Rinpa was carried on by pupils such as Suzuki Kiitsu.
A. A late Edo painter and haikai poet. Born in Edo as the second son of the Sakai lords of Himeji, he later became a monk. He studied Ogata Kōrin’s style deeply, worked to honor Kōrin, and founded the Edo Rinpa school with a refined style adding an Edo sensibility. His masterpiece is the Summer and Autumn Grasses screens painted on the back of Kōrin’s Wind God and Thunder God screens.
A. Period: Edo period. Born in 1761, died in 1829.
A. Sakai Hōitsu was born in Sakai (Himeji domain) residence, Edo.
A. A work Hōitsu painted on the back of Ogata Kōrin’s Wind God and Thunder God screens. Behind the thunder god are summer grasses beaten by rain, and behind the wind god autumn grasses swaying in the wind, designed to echo the front. It is now held by the Tokyo National Museum and designated an Important Cultural Property.
See also: Wikipedia (ja) / Wikipedia (en) / Wikipedia (fr) / Wikipedia (zh) / Wikidata
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People of the Edo period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.