Calligraphy with painting of eggplants | Ōtagaki Rengetsu 太田垣蓮月 | 1791-1875

Ōtagaki Rengetsu is an outstanding personality in the women's culture of Kyoto in the 19th century. She was famous as a poet, calligrapher, painter and potter. Rengetsu developed her own style, which, especially in calligraphy, is reminiscent of the Heian-era women's culture of Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shōnagon (11th century). In her calligraphy, she preferred the hiragana syllabary like her medieval court models. When she used Chinese characters (kanji), she did so in a completely unorthodox and free manner.

Rengetsu had a life full of hard blows of fate, and so she decided to renounce the world and become a nun. She loved to poetize the simple - her fine ceramics, which (legend has it) she took to the market in the morning to earn food for the day - were often just ash or clay colored. Her painting was also never ostentatious; it usually only served to illustrate her calligraphed poems (tanka). For her calligraphy she always chose a very thin brush, but the trace was always incomparably delicate and elegant.

The mounting of this summer picture is probably original - it could well date from the time the calligraphy was created. In any case, its simple elegance corresponds to the somewhat rustic quality of the paper base of the picture with its inimitable delicacy of writing and painting.    The poem is loosely translated:

There are many (good) fruits (like eggplants) in the world, but I find it even more enjoyable to do good (nasu: both “do” and “eggplant”)