Art Ew - National Gallery of Australia

hermitage. Within a decade Teruhisa and the last of
Rengetsu’s children had died. The nun then left the temple
to make her own way in the world.
In search of a means of support, she considered
teaching the board game gõ, which Teruhisa had taught
her, or waka poetry, which she had studied at Kameoka.
(Waka poems have thirty-one syllables divided into five
lines of five-seven-five-seven-seven syllables.) Although
neither career was a success, Rengetsu’s verse did
contribute to her later work. In her late forties or early
fifties, Rengetsu began making tea ceramics. In describing
her teapots, Rengetsu modestly wrote, ‘they were very
humble and the shapes were unrefined. The poems I
carved on them I wrote when I had a moment free. I never
had much free time.’ 1
Rengetsu’s combination of pottery, poetry and
calligraphy, usually using Japanese kana rather than
Chinese kanji characters, was inspired. These simple,
often roughly made, objects proved enormously popular.
Though doubtless an exaggeration, it has been said that
Rengetsu made more than 50,000 works in her lifetime
and that every Kyoto household included at least one
example, be it a tea vessel, sweets dish, sake flask or
cup, tanzaku poem sheet, or a painting with calligraphy.
Rengetsu’s work was so popular that even within her
lifetime it was imitated and faked, a practice that has
continued intermittently to the present and which makes
it difficult to confidently attribute many Rengetsustyle
objects to the artist herself. In many ways this is
unimportant as such things did not concern Rengetsu.
She is believed to have willingly helped others make
their ceramics and paintings more saleable by adding her
calligraphy to them. In one story, a ceramics manufacturer
asked Rengetsu to inscribe copies of her work because
they couldn’t duplicate her calligraphy. She agreed, even
presenting some originals so better copies could be made.
To keep up with demand for her ceramics, Rengetsu also
worked with professional potters, including Isso (dates
unknown) and Kuroda Koryo (1822–1895). Known as
Rengetsu II, Kuroda had Rengetsu’s permission to sign his
work with her name and continued to do so after her death.
The Makuzuan hermitage
at Chion’in, Kyoto, where
Rengetsu lived with her
daughter/s and her adoptive
father Teruhisa
(opposite)
Otagaki Rengetsu and
Tomioka Tessai In this
world hanging scroll
[kakemono] c. 1855 ink on
paper 92.0 x 20.0 cm overall
National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra
Otagaki Rengetsu and
Wada Gozan/Gesshin
The goddess Amaterasu’s
divine light hanging scroll
[kakemono] 1864 (detail)
ink on paper
sheet 33.1 x 56.6 cm
Museum DKM/Stiftung DKM,
Duisburg, Germany
Down to the Kamo river vase
[hanaire] 1850–75
glazed ceramic, incising
29.3 x 3.5 x 3.5 cm
Private collection, Basel
artonview spring 2007 37