Red and White Plum Blossoms

Ogata Kōrin's 'Red and White Plum Blossoms' is the supreme masterpiece of Rinpa decorative painting, executed as a pair of two-panel folding screens in the early 18th century. On each gold-leaf screen a single plum tree blossoms in full flower — white on the right screen, red on the left — while between them runs a sinuous stylised stream, painted in deep silver-grey wash and dark ink. Rather than representing nature, the work turns plum, water, and gold into a pure composition of pattern and rhythm. Designated a National Treasure of Japan, it is displayed only briefly each spring at the MOA Museum of Art in Atami.