Art Ew - National Gallery of Australia

project gallery
Rengetsu’s memorial stone
at Saihoji, near Jinkoin.
The calligraphy was designed
by Tomioka Tessai
34 national gallery of australia
Black robe, white mist: art of the Japanese Buddhist nun
Rengetsu
8 September 2007 – 27 January 2008
Black robe, white mist celebrates the life and work of
Otagaki Rengetsu or Lotus Moon (1791–1875). Featuring
delicate ceramics, calligraphy and scroll painting, it is the
first exhibition outside Japan to focus solely on the work of
Rengetsu, who lived an exceptional life at a time of great
social and political upheaval. Black robe, white mist brings
together many objects never before exhibited, the majority
of which are in private collections.
Born the illegitimate daughter of a courtesan and a
high-ranking samurai in a Kyoto pleasure district, Rengetsu
died a Buddhist nun renowned as a poet, calligrapher,
potter and painter. She was included in Heian jinbutsu
shi, a list of prominent people in Kyoto, in 1838, 1852
and 1867, and even today she is one of the characters in
Kyoto’s annual Jidai Matsuri or Festival of the Ages, which
includes a parade of historical figures.
Despite her fame, relatively little is known with
certainty about Rengetsu and much that is believed about
her owes more to fantasy and romantic conceptions of
her character and astonishing beauty than to reality. She
endured personal tragedy from early in her life and it was
these experiences that led to her remarkably productive
artistic career.
Originally called Nobu, Rengetsu was adopted as
a baby by Otagaki Hanzaemon Teruhisa, a lay priest at
Chion’in, the major Pure Land Buddhist temple in Kyoto,
and his wife Nawa. Teruhisa and Nawa had five sons
only one of whom, Katahisa, was still alive at the time
of Rengetsu’s adoption. When she was eight or nine,
Rengetsu went to live at Kameoka Castle where, as a ladyin-waiting,
she received training in poetry, calligraphy,
dance, needlework and martial arts. During the time
Rengetsu was at Kameoka, Nawa and Katahisa both died.
At the age of sixteen or seventeen Rengetsu returned
to Kyoto and married Oka Tenzo. In keeping with custom,
he was adopted into the Otagaki family and his name
changed accordingly. He became Naoichi Mochihisa.
Rengetsu’s first child, a son, was born soon after the
marriage but lived only twenty days. The couple also had
two daughters but they too died young, one at a few
months and the other as a small child. In a rare occurrence
for the time, Rengetsu eventually divorced the apparently
depraved Mochihisa.
Her second marriage was a happy match but ended
tragically when her husband Ishikawa Jujiro (who became
Hisatoshi upon adoption) died from tuberculosis. The pair
had at least one daughter and possibly two. The night
before his death, Rengetsu marked her intention never to
remarry by cutting off her hair. Aged thirty-three, she soon
became a nun, adopting Lotus Moon as her name. Teruhisa
was ordained at the same time and, with Rengetsu’s
remaining child, or children, they moved to a Chion’in