"Blossoms of the Red and White Plum" — Ogata Korin
Price: $80,500
These folding screens, a National Treasure of Japan, depict two plum trees by a river. Once thought decorative, the dark river is revealed by research to be oxidized silver leaf, originally glowing like molten metal against gold.
Created near the end of Korin’s life, it’s seen as the peak of his art—radically simple: gold, two trees, a river. The flowers lack outlines; instead, Korin used *tarashikomi*, wet paint on damp pigment, creating textured, spontaneous blooms. So iconic, it inspired the term “Korin’s plum blossoms.”
Though now a masterpiece, it was nearly unknown for 200 years—absent from Edo records, unseen publicly until 1915.
#NationalTreasure #JapaneseArt #Tarashikomi
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1September 1, 2026 8.7K 1
