Minneapolis Institute of Art

Flowers of the Four Seasons

Saitō Ippo

Date

early 19th century

Medium

Six-panel folding screen, ink and color on gold leaf

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

On this single six-panel screen, the flowers of the four seasons bloom in confused disarray. The rightmost panel starts with spring flowers: dandelions, violets, nanohana, white camellias, then plum. At about the center of the screen, irises, hydrangea, hollyhocks, peonies, hibiscus, and morning glories represent summer. The leftmost panel shows autumn and winter with chrysanthemums, bush clover, and arrowroot, thus including and gathering together representative flowers of each of the four seasons. Much is unclear about the life of Saito_ Ippo, but it is thought that he was the pupil of Sakai O_ho (1808-41), the adopted son of Sakai Ho_itsu, and was an official at the Asakusa Temple in Edo. Few works by Ippo survive and the others currently known are almost exclusively screens with mounted fan paintings. Nonetheless, the outlines of the flowers and plants in this work are very carefully executed and the technique of precisely layering colors and gold pigment shows that the artist had considerable talent and drew from the Edo Rinpa tradition, making this a valuable work by Ippo. Japan, Asia

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