Kiitsu Suzuki ― Standard Bearer of the Edo Rimpa School

Himeji City Museum of Art

[Image: "Folding Screen with Cranes" Late Edo-period, Feinberg Collection]

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Kiitsu Suzuki (1796-1858) is a painter of the Edo Rimpa school, who was active in the late Edo period.
Rimpa was established in Kyoto by Hon’ami Koetsu and Tawaraya Sotatsu in the early Edo period and Ogata Korin, Ogata Kenzan, and others in the mid-Edo period. In the late Edo period, Sakai Hoitsu revived the Rimpa style in Edo. Adding new tastes and refi nement, he created a new style called “Edo Rimpa.” Kiitsu was known as Hoitsu’s most prominent pupil.
While inheriting the ornate tradition of Rimpa, Kiitsu’s artistic style was characterized by vivid coloring, bold compositions, and opulent designs and was overflowing with a novelty that is still recognized to this day. He brought his versatililty into full play painting a variety of subjects including bird-and-flower paintings, landscape paintings, narrative paintings, genre paintings, Buddhist paintings, and seasonal festival paintings, and also working on hanging scrolls of painted mountings, fans, kites, battledores, and votive wooden tablets. Furthermore, Kiitsu trained his own son Suzuki Shuitsu and many other pupils, encouraging them to hand down the Rimpa style that continues to the present. Indeed, Kiitsu played a spectacular role as a standard-bearer for Edo Rimpa.
The exhibition “Suzuki Kiitsu: Standard-bearer of the Edo Rimpa School”, held at Suntory Museum of Art, Himeji City Museum of Art, Hosomi Museum, and the Yomiuri Shimbun, brings together masterworks by Kiitsu on a scale unrivaled by earlier exhibitions both inside and outside Japan, offering visitors a rare opportunity to encounter the full range of his not-to-be-missed paintings.