Hon’ami Kōetsu

The Momoyama-period artist Hon’ami Koetsu is renowned for his national treasure-designated matcha tea bowl and maki-e lacquer work, as well as for his fluid and graceful calligraphy style known as the ‘Koetsu style’. Koetsu’s flowing calligraphy composed over the gold and silver-painted ground executed by Tawaraya Sotatsu are exceptional masterworks born of the collaboration between the two contemporary geniuses.Koetsu established an artist community in Takagamine area (northwest Kyoto), a land granted by the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1615. The Rimpa School is considered to have originated from Koetsu.