Ogata Korin made something of a picnic out of life, but he left great art to posterity. To celebrate the 300th anniversary of his birth. Tokyo's Shirokiya department store has put on exhibition 120 of the Japanese master's pictures in the greatest Korin show ever assembled.
Korin inherited a fortune at 30, made several more from his art, and spent them all before his death at 58. He was a philosopher in love with life, knowing and glorying in its evanescence. Once, to dramatize his feeling, he brought plain rice balls, wrapped in bamboo, to a flower-viewing party. After eating, he unrolled...
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