Red and White Plum Blossoms

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Red and White Plum Blossoms, or Shihonkinjichakushoku kōhakubaizu, is an early 18th‑century painting on a pair of two‑panel folding screens by Japanese artist Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716). The simple, stylized image shows a flowing patterned river with a white plum tree on the left and a red plum tree on the right, signaling spring. The work is one of Japan’s best‑known paintings and is a National Treasure, kept at the MOA Museum of Art in Atami, Shizuoka.

The piece is undated but is believed to be from Kōrin’s late period, around 1714–1715, just before his death. The left screen bears the signature Hokkyō Kōrin and the right screen Sei Sei Kōrin, both with the Hōshuku seal. It is painted with colored pigments on paper mounted on two screens, each about 156.5 by 172.5 cm. Kōrin used tarashikomi—letting a second layer of pigment sit on a still-wet first layer—to create the mottled texture of the trees. The work is a key example of the Rinpa school.

Analyses between 2008 and 2010, then again in 2011, confirmed a gold leaf background and silver in the river, with sulfide blackening in darker areas. A full-scale reproduction by Tomoki Moriyama, using historically accurate materials and methods, helped illustrate how the original surface may have looked and how aging changed it.

There is little documentation about the commission before the 20th century. The screens were first published in 1907 and publicly shown in 1915. Mokichi Okada purchased them in 1954, and they now form part of the MOA collection, shown for about a month each year in late winter when plum blossoms bloom. A nearby garden recreates the scene with 360 plum trees, drawing large crowds. The painting is regarded as one of Kōrin’s greatest works and a landmark of Japanese art; it even appeared in the opening credits of NHK’s Genroku Ryōran.