HON'AMI KOETSU

born 1558, Kyoto, Japan died Feb. 27, 1637, Kyoto Koetsu also spelled Koyetsu celebrated Japanese painter of the Tokugawa period who was also an innovator in lacquerwork (with raised inlays of metal and shell and bold designs), a calligrapher, a potter, a connoisseur of swords, a landscape gardener, and a devotee of the tea ceremony. He was born in the imperial city of Kyoto and followed his father's profession as purveyor of swords to the imperial court. In 1615 the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu granted him a territory in Takamine, northwest of Kyoto, where he established a hermitage called the Taikyo-an. Together with his equally remarkable relative Sotatsu, he founded a school of painting that was continued by Ogata Korin, the style of which was colourful and strongly decorative, recapturing the Yamato-e tradition of classical Japan.