Hon'ami Kōetsu
Kyoto's Renaissance man.
Hon'ami Kōetsu was a calligrapher, potter and lacquer artist and founded an artists' village at Takagamine. He collaborated with Sōtatsu.
Hon'ami Kōetsu was born in Kyoto in 1558 into the Hon'ami family, who for generations had polished and appraised swords for the warrior aristocracy. He received a thorough training in the family trade, but also in literature, calligraphy and the tea ceremony. The family belonged to Nichiren Buddhism, which was strong among Kyoto's merchants and craftsmen.
Kōetsu became one of the most admired calligraphers of his day and is counted as one of the Three Great Brushes of the Kan'ei era in the early 17th century. His writing is free and rhythmic, with alternating thick and thin strokes. He often wrote classical Japanese poems on paper decorated with gold and silver motifs. The best-known examples were made together with Tawaraya Sōtatsu, who painted flying cranes or deer in gold and silver along long scrolls, while Kōetsu wrote the poems over them. The Crane Scroll is in the Kyoto National Museum.
In 1615 Kōetsu was granted land at Takagamine north of Kyoto by the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. There he founded a village where artists, craftsmen and followers of Nichiren Buddhism lived and worked together. He also devoted himself to ceramics and lacquer. His hand-formed raku tea bowls are among the most prized in Japan, and a white bowl called Fuji-san is a National Treasure. A lacquer writing box with an arched bridge in lead, Funabashi, in the Tokyo National Museum, is attributed to him.
Kōetsu died in 1637. He is regarded as one of the founders of the decorative Rinpa tradition and as an example of a versatile artist in whose work writing, image and object merge.