Ogata Kōrin, Red and White Plum Blossoms

[@tony8074]

So nice to see such a masterpiece treasured and on view for everyone.

[@mv11000]

Thank you for also including Asian art in your series! I‘d never seen this work and it is gorgeous.

[@smarthistory-art-history]

If you would like to learn more about the art of Japan, we have quite a lot: smarthistory.org/asia/japan/ and we hope to have a new video produced in partnership with the Tokyo National Museum soon.

[@mv11000]

@ That‘s wonderful, thank you for the info!

[@traviswadezinn]

Beautiful -thank you

[@oltedders]

What a treat to see so many examples from this important movement in Japanese art. Thank you!

[@gregorykinsey8135]

Thank you, professors! I have been subscribed to your KZbin channel for some time, but have never commented on any of your excellent videos before. But as someone who has been going to Japan since he was 13 (and now nearly 68), I have been to the MOA Museum numerous times and have seen this particular artwork at least 3 times that I can recall. You have really “nailed the work right on its head” in this video! Thanks very much for doing so. No criticism whatsoever from this old Japan Hand here. I served as a trustee at the National Museum of Asian Art at the Smithsonian for a bit, and have donated about a third of my Japanese tea ceremony utensil and tea-related art collection to them. Selections from my gift will be on exhibition within a larger Japanese art exhibition opening on April 12, 2025 in the Freer Gallery at the NMAA on the National Mall in D.C. If it would be of interest, please let me know if you would like an introduction to the curators of the exhibition. Kindest regards, Gregory Kinsey

[@smarthistory-art-history]

Thank you for the very generous note, it was a treat to read. Comments like yours keep us going. Visiting MOA was glorious and thank you for your generous offer of introduction. We were just visiting the NMAA recording with the curators about a month ago. In the realm of the art of Japan, we have had the great privilege of working with Frank Feltens, who is just amazing. We will keep an eye out for your tea related collection when we return in a few months for another round of recording. While in Japan in November we also worked with the Tokyo National Museum and made a recording about the pagoda at Horyu-ji in Nara and a few other things so please keep an eye out for new videos in the coming months. And please stay in touch.

[@Wakobear.]

I love the beautiful way Japanese (and Chinese) artists paint the branches of plum blossoms in such abrupt angular forms. And their landscapes convey such a harmony and beauty in a way that the more realistic western art traditions does not.

[@jeanlanz2344]

Gorgeous work. Thank you and God bless you.

[@smarthistory-art-history]

You are very kind.

[@daveyost1567]

Gorgeous! Thanks for sharing this one with us.

[@i_am_a_music_maker5212]

I didn’t really understand this painting before but I think I do now, thank for this video and everything you guys do

[@Romalvx]

Your comment is art, as well. I love listening to your descriptive voices explaining the subject in such a sweet way.

[@smarthistory-art-history]

What a lovely note, thank you.

[@Romalvx]

@ Please consider explaining many more works of art like you’ve done in this video. I will definitely play and advice it to my art students in Rome. Greetings from Italy!

[@smarthistory-art-history]

We have published more than 1,200 videos and 3,500 essays (including works in Rome!) which can all be found here: smarthistory.org/

[@Romalvx]

@ Thank you so much! Should you come back to Rome ine day, my students and I will take you for a walk to show you some hidden wonders!

[@christianfrommuslim]

So lovely! We tend to think of Japanese art as more restrained than Chinese and Western art. As we see in this great example, however, they at times depart from that with the generous use of gold in paintings and lacquerware.

[@Dan-hy3eh]

Thanks for this lovely video. You forgot to mentioned that the stream was probably blue and the color probably decayed over time.

[@stalkek]

Stunning. Klimt very much comes to mind, though perhaps Klimt by comparison a little excessive in his sensuality rather than the comparative restraint here. … I wrote this as the video was going on and as I write you bring up Klimt yourselves at the end!

[@hosokawayuko6250]

For us Japanese, this is Beauty, not idealized human bodies. So different.

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

We can see a whole lot of rectangles "shining" trough the paintings, it look strange, my initial thought was this was meant for travelling etc, but the rectangles are too small, and it seems the paint is not broken between two rectangles, it must all be the result of how the "canvas"? is made perhaps?

[@smarthistory-art-history]

The squares that you see are a result of the application of sheets of gold leaf. And just fyi, it is painted on paper.

[@oltedders]

I believe what you are seeing is the individual leaves of the "pear skin" gold. The borders have become more pronounced as the surface has aged and the individual squares of applied gold leaf are now visible.

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

@@smarthistory-art-history - ah, thanks, Japanese people do not mind the surface is not all smooth like a paper?

[@smarthistory-art-history]

As oltedders mentioned, those lines become visible with age. Just like European objects show their age. Have you seen the red clay applied under late medieval and renaissance gold leaf? That was also not originally visible.

[@Oblivitana]

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