Kamisaka Sekka

About Kamisaka Sekka

Rinpa goes back to two Kyoto artists of the early seventeenth century, Hon’ami Kōetsu and Tawaraya Sōtatsu, and takes its name from Ogata Kōrin, who carried the style on about a century later. Its marks are flat areas of colour, simplified shapes and a strong sense of pattern. Sekka brought that tradition into the twentieth century, designing lacquerware and textiles as well as books; “Momoyogusa” appeared in three volumes in 1909–1910.

The motifs follow the seasons, a constant theme of Rinpa: wisteria, white peonies and cherry blossom for spring and early summer, pampas grass under the moon and wild geese among reeds for autumn, with waves and Mount Fuji as landscape. Sekka’s designs are reproduced in pigment inks as giclée prints, made to order in Berlin on matte 210 g/m² fine art paper or 400 g/m² cotton canvas, in sizes A4 to A0.