Inspirations

While studying Japanese aesthetics it became quite evident that the Japanese culture is intimately linked to the passing of the four seasons.
Since antiquity, Japanese poets have come to associate each of the seasons with a set of keywords that would immediately refer to a particular part of the year once used in a poem. These seasonal words, also called Kigo, span the whole range of human experience with many focusing on the plant world (ancient aristocrats really enjoyed their gardens). This way visions of plum buds on gnarly branches or the swaying of the Susuki (Pampas grass) in the wind immediately evoked the sensations of an early spring or an autumn day respectively. Following this line, I decided to reproduce 12 of Korin's works, three per season, that met the seasonal kigo list.
Identifying all the subjects in my selection of Korin's works took some time, especially when dealing with the multitude of wild autumnal plants/grasses used as kigo. Spring instead seemed unusually poor of plants used as kigo. Though surprising at first, it made sense once I realized that traditional Japanese seasons are based on the lunar calendar and that Spring started in February. Winter is equally poor of kigo subjects as much as it is also of dedicated Korin's artworks unfortunately, you don't really need hand-fans in winter.
Spring was then relatively easily represented with an Ume tree (Fig. 1), a Willow (Fig. 2) and some Poppies (Fig. 3). For Summer, the choices were more abundant and I opted for some Irises (Fig. 4), a Hydrangea (Fig. 11, from the MET collection) and a Peony (Fig. 5). For Autumn I settled on a trellis of Asagao (morning glories, Fig. 7), an example of Nanakusa (nine autumn grasses, Fig. 6) and some Kikyo (platycodon, Fig. 3). For Winter the search was long and arduous but in the end, I chose a Pine tree under snow (Fig. 8), a Tsuwabuki (Fig. 9) and some Bamboo also under snow (Fig. 10)

The majority of the subjects were taken from the “Korin Hyakuzu” and the “Korin Shinsen Hyakuzu” but the latter subject was pretty tricky to find. In the reference books there are in effect only a couple of self-standing compositions, i.e. not part of a four seasons painting, that feature winter Kigo. The bamboo composition I found, was featured in a 1908 calendar printed by the Hasegawa company. While absent from the reference catalog as a snow/covered bamboo scene, the "Korin Shinsen Hyakuzu" contains a very similar bamboo composition only mirrored and without snow (Fig. 10). Now, Ogata Korin, as most Japanese artists of his time, reused frequently his compositions, with slight variations, across multiple works so I decided to trust the Hasegawa publishers and included it in my set.
During the 18th century, most works of painted art, were mainly utilitarian objects as fans, folding screens and sliding doors; hanging scrolls, the art form closer to our framed wall paintings, were reserved for la creme de la creme pieces mostly handed down the family line. This explains the many roundish works present in the catalogue and in my project.