[1][2] Kōrin is best known for his byōbu folding screens, such as Irises[3] and Red and White Plum Blossoms[4] (both registered National Treasures), and his paintings on ceramics and lacquerware[1] produced by his brother Kenzan (1663–1743).
Also a prolific designer, he worked with a variety of decorative and practical objects, such as round fans, makie writing boxes or inrō medicine cases.
He is also credited[5] with reviving and consolidating the Rinpa school of Japanese painting, fifty years after its foundation by Hon'ami Kōetsu (1558–1637) and Tawaraya Sōtatsu (c. 1570 – c. 1640).
[9] His father, Ogata Sōken (1621–1687), who was a noted calligrapher in the style of Kōetsu and patron of Noh theater,[9] introduced his sons to the arts.
1683–1706) of the Kanō school,[2] Kano Tsunenobu (1636–1713) and Sumiyoshi Gukei (1631–1705), but his biggest influences were his predecessors Hon'ami Kōetsu and Tawaraya Sōtatsu.
[10] Sōken died in 1687,[9] and the elder brother took over the family business, leaving Kōrin and Kenzan free to enjoy a considerable inheritance.
After this, Kōrin led a very active social life, but his spending ran him into financial difficulties the following years, partly due to loans made to feudal lords.
A letter sent by him to a pawnbroker in 1694 regarding "one writing box with deer by Kōetsu" and "one Shigaraki ware water jar with lacquer lid" survives.
[18] His chief pupils were Tatebayashi Kagei, Watanabe Shikō[10] and Fukae Rōshu,[2] but the present knowledge and appreciation of his work are largely due to the early efforts of his brother Kenzan[19] and later Sakai Hōitsu, who brought about a revival of Kōrin's style.
It depicts abstracted blue Japanese irises in bloom, and their green foliage, creating a rhythmically repeating but varying pattern across the panels.
All three versions of the work were displayed together for the first time in seventy-five years in 2015, at the Kyoto National Museum exhibition Rinpa: The Aesthetics of the Capital.
[25] Red and White Plum Blossoms (紙本金地著色紅白梅図) is a pair of two-panel byōbu folding screens painted by Kōrin using ink and color on gold-foiled paper.
[31] Along with the rest of Okada's collection,[33] it is now owned by the MOA Museum of Art in Atami, where they are displayed for one month per year in late winter, the season when the plum blossoms bloom.