National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

　 This work was originally part of a two-sided painting on a folding screen: Korin made a replica of Sotatsu's folding-screen painting, “Wind God and Thunder God,” and Hoitsu painted this work on its backside, which became Hoitsu’s best-known work. It was a monumental two-sided folding-screen painting that symbolized the Rinpa tradition, but it was recently reformatted into two separate pairs of screens in order to protect them from damage. On the backside of the “Thunder God,” Hoitsu painted summer plants revived by a sudden shower and the swollen flow of a river, and he painted on the reverse side of the “Wind God” autumn plants swaying and wild grape leaves blown in a strong wind.
　 Hoitsu (1761–1828) was captivated by Korin's paintings after taking a number of painting styles of different schools. He established the Rinpa tradition in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) and made it flourish there. It is notable that the elegant and refined taste common to poetry, which is another field of art Hoitsu practiced, is dominant in his style, yet a painting technique traditionally adopted by the Rinpa school, called “tarashikomi,” is also used in his depictions of flowering plants imbued with poetic flair. It is worth noting that Hoitsu tried to create a vivid color effect by not shading the motifs in this elegant work of flowering plants painted on the ground of silver leaf. Hoitsu aimed for the natural integration of lyricism and decorative technique. This work can be said to present the high point of his artistic achievement. Both panels bear an inscription that reads "by Hoitsu" and a red round seal of "Bunsen," another name of Hoitsu.