12 Dec Otagaki Rengetsu
Women in the Arts for hundreds of years, some might say thousands of years. Serenely and quietly powerful shakers and movers!
The Buddhist nun Otagaki Rengetsu was one of them. She lived 1791~1875, was married twice, five children, widowed, entered a monastery for several years and became one of the greatest and most admired poets, a skilled potter, painter, calligrapher and was also a master of martial arts!
I have always always admired her pottery often tea bowls with her poetry incised. This is one example. BachmannEckenstein of Basel, Switzerland, https://www.
offers this bowl with the following poem:
In the future
happiness
and long life –
two sprouting leaves
to grow a thousand years.
The bowl also shows a typical Japanese technique of repairing pottery- kintsugi – repairing with gold lacquer technique, a technique that is very much appreciated and often adds to value.