Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2017 Site Specific: The power of place

The art of Lotus Moon, a Japanese Buddhist nun in nineteenth-century

Melanie Eastburn

1-2 March 2017

Lecture summary:

Otagaki Rengetsu was a Japanese Buddhist nun, poet, calligrapher, painter and potter who lived in Kyoto at a time of dramatic social and political change. She was born in 1791 and died in 1875 so saw the relatively isolationist Edo period come to a close and experienced the rise of the Meiji period, which began in 1868.

Rengetsu’s art is intimately linked with her life in and around ’s old capital of Kyoto. In this lecture her life is discussed through four aspects of her work – poetry, ceramics for tea and sake, calligraphy and , and collaboration with other artists.

Slide list:

1. Morimoto Kiyoko, Portrait of Rengetsu, 20th century, hanging scroll, ink on paper; woodblock print (detail). Private collection

2. Panoramic map of Kyoto, 1883, from an almanac published by Fuugetsu Shouzaemon, Kyoto, available through University of Texas Libraries

3. Kitagawa Utamaro, Komurasaki of the house of Miuraya and Shirai Gonpachi, from a series depicting pairs of ill-fated lovers, c. 1800, colour woodblock print. National Gallery of Victoria, Felton Bequest 1909

4. Otagaki Rengetsu, Gathering up many karanazuna plants, 1866, hanging scroll (kakemono), ink on paper; calligraphy, painting. Private collection, Zurich

5. Watanabe Nangaku, Portraits of six poetesses, late 18th-early 19th century, hanging scroll (kakemono); ink, colours and gold on silk. Art Gallery NSW, purchased 1980

6. Otagaki Rengetsu, The evening is fragrant, 1850s-60s, hanging scroll (kakemono), ink on paper; calligraphy. Art Gallery of NSW, purchased 1994

7. Otagaki Rengetsu, Letter to Mr Kumagai or Kumatani, 19th century, hanging scroll (kakemono), ink on paper; calligraphy. Private collection, Basel

8. Tomioka Tessai, Posthumous portrait of Rengetsu, ink and colour on paper; painting, Jinkoin collection, Kyoto

9. Chionin, Kyoto. Photo: Melanie Eastburn

10. Chionin hermitage, Kyoto. Photo: Melanie Eastburn

11. Otagaki Rengetsu and/or Kuroda Koryo, Let us consider our aging, 1850s, teapot (kyusu), stoneware; incised calligraphy. National Gallery of Australia, purchased 2005

12. Rengetsu as portrayed in the 2008 Jidai Matsuri. Photo: unknown

13. Let us consider our aging, National Gallery of Australia, purchased 2005 (repeat)

14. Probably Kuroda Koryo, Let us consider our aging, 1870, teapot (kyusu), glazed stoneware; calligraphy, painting. Private collection, Kyoto

15. Probably Isso or Kuroda Koryo (Rengetsu II), This being New Year’s Day, 19th century, teabowl (chawan), glazed stoneware: calligraphy, painting. Art Gallery of NSW, Roger Pietri Fund 2005

16. Otagaki Rengetsu, I would snap off a maple branch; Withered they remain; Mt Miwa accepts; At my home; This is no common thing; Mirror mountain; In this world no thoughts; Getting closer, 1830-75, tea set for sencha, glazed stoneware; calligraphy, painting. Private collection, Basel

17. Otagaki Rengetsu, Scooped up and brought here to this pot, 1850s-60s, hanging scroll (kakemono), ink on paper; calligraphy, painting. John Stevens collection

18. Japan, Women drinking tea, 1880s, hand-coloured albumen silver photograph

19. Japan, Informal tea party, 1880s, hand-coloured albumen silver photograph, National Gallery of Victoria, 2004.555

20. Otagaki Rengetsu and/or Kuroda Koryo, This gentleman grows and grows, 1830-75, tea set for sencha, glazed stoneware; incised calligraphy. Private collection, Switzerland

21. Otagaki Rengetsu and Isso (potter’s seal), Night storm, 1830-75, teabowl (chawan), glazed stoneware; painted calligraphy. Private collection, St Louis

22. Otagaki Rengetsu and Isso (potter’s seal), Let us consider our aging, 1830-75, teabowl (chawan), glazed stoneware; incised calligraphy. Private collection, Bangkok

23. Otagaki Rengetsu, Scooping up chrysanthemum dew, 1873, box for sake flasks, wood; calligraphy. The spring wind; Fluttering merrily, 1873, sake flasks (tokkuri), glazed stoneware; incised calligraphy. Private collection

24. Otagaki Rengetsu and/or Kuroda Koryo, Though I often get news and When I look at the white chrysanthemums, 19th century, sake cups (guinomi), glazed stoneware; incised calligraphy. Private collection, Basel

25. Otagaki Rengetsu and/or Kuroda Koryo, Let us speak to the flowers and Oh Mt Shiga, 19th century, sake cups (guinomi), glazed stoneware; incised calligraphy. Collection RH, Toronto, Canada

26. Otagaki Rengetsu, Fluttering merrily, 1840s-50s, hanging scroll (kakemono), ink on paper; calligraphy, painting (detail). Private collection, Switzerland

27. Otagaki Rengetsu, Fluttering merrily, 1870, sake flask (tokkuri), glazed stoneware; incised calligraphy, painting. Museum DKM, Germany

28. Possibly Otagaki Rengetsu and Tomioka Tessai, In a mountain village, 1830-75, incense container (kogo) in the form of a badger (tanuki), glazed stoneware; incised calligraphy. Private collection, New York

For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/site-specific/

29. Photograph of Tomioka Tessai. National Diet Library, Japan, 721.7-Ko91-2

30. Otagaki Rengetsu and Tomioka Tessai, In the fields, in the mountains, 1868, hanging scroll (kakemono), ink on silk; calligraphy, painting. Private collection, Kyoto

31. Otagaki Rengetsu, In the fields, in the mountains, 1868, poem sheet (tanzaku), ink on paper; calligraphy, painting. Private collection, Brussels

32. Otagaki Rengetsu and Mori Kansai, Oh Mt Shiga, 1869, hanging scroll (kakemono), ink and colour on paper; calligraphy, painting. Private collection, Kyoto

33. Jinkoin, Kyoto. Photo: Melanie Eastburn

34. Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Moon of the Southern Sea, from ‘One hundred aspects of the moon’, 1888, colour woodblock print. Art Gallery of NSW, Yasuko Myer Bequest Fund 2012

35. Otagaki Rengetsu, Parinirvana of the Buddha, c 1870, ink on paper; painting. Jinkoin collection, Kyoto

36. Otagaki Rengetsu and Wada Gozan/Gesshin, The goddess Amaterasu’s divine light, 1868, hanging scroll (kakemono), ink on paper; calligraphy, painting. Museum DKM, Germany

37. The wedded rocks of Ise Bay, Japan. Photo: unknown

38. Otagaki Rengetsu and Wada Gozan, The goddess Amaterasu’s divine light (detail)

39. Tearoom, Jinkoin, Kyoto. Photo: Melanie Eastburn

40. Saihoji, near Jinkoin. Photo: Melanie Eastburn

41. Rengetsu’s memorial stone at Saihoji, near Jinkoin. Photo: Melanie Eastburn

Reference:

Melanie Eastburn, Lucie Folan and Robyn Maxwell (eds), Black robe, white mist: art of the Japanese Buddhist nun Rengetsu, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 2007

Patricia Fister, Japanese women artists 1600-1900, Lawrence, Kansas: Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, 1988

Patrica J Graham, Tea of the sages: the art of Sencha, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998

John Stevens, Lotus Moon: the poetry of the Buddhist nun Rengetsu, New York: White Pine Press, 1994/2005

Tokuda Koen, Otagaki Rengetsu, : Kodansha, 1982

Poem translations by Sayumi Takahashi, John Stevens, Chiaki Ajioka, Kumiko Brown, Meher McArthur and Patricia Fister.