Zhao Maoshu admiring lotuses

The subject of the painting is Zhou Maoshu (1017–1075), a Chinese scholar admired in Japan for his love of flowers. In this scene he views lotus blossoms from a lakeshore in a scholar’s white robe and peaked cap. His elbow rests on a red lacquered tripod armrest.

Like many artists of his time, Ogata Korin included both Chinese and Japanese subjects in his work. His Rinpa-style interpretation of this Chinese theme features radical simplification—the omission of most details of the setting and costume—and an emphasis on repeated, curving outlines.

Note the undulating lines around the scholar’s robe, flowers, and the rounded mound of earth, executed in a graded ink wash. Korin’s painting delights with its sophisticated, rhythmic balance of flat, graphic elements.

The square red seal beneath the signature at the lower right is also found on one of Korin’s few dated works, a portrait of his patron painted in 1704.