Irises

Fukuda Heihachirō trained in Kyoto under the renowned Takeuchi Seihō (1864–1942) and other prominent painters. His stylistic development took many turns and included a devotion to realism in the 1910s and ’20s. In later years, still sketching from real life, he moved to a flattened, pure-form decorative style. He acknowledged that his concepts flowed from the masters Sōtatsu and Kōrin.

These irises are a clear homage to a famous painting by Kōrin. However, the pull of realism is strong. The careful, individualized attention paid to the blossoms and leaves, each one delicately rendered, mixes Rinpa-style patterning with the techniques of exquisite observation.

Late in life Heihachirō observed, “In most cases, because of my faith in reality, I move with the aim to penetrate the real; however, because I love Kōrin and Sōtatsu, I somehow get involved in decorative art. I reflected on this tendency day and night, and I realized that whether I have become decorative or realist does not matter to me. The problem is the content.”

Irises
Fukuda Heihachirō (1892–1974)
Japan, 1934
Painting
Color on silk
National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, J00067