Associated first and foremost with the famous artists Tawaraya Sôtatsu (active approx. 1600–1640), Ogata Kôrin (1658–1716) and Sakai Hôitsu (1761–1828), the Rinpa style of Japanese painting began to find its way into emerging European collections of Asian art around 1900. However, these were mostly recent works by little-known painters—from the autumn of the tradition—which were acquired as representative works of the Kôrin style and soon fell into oblivion. Due to the enthusiasm for Kôrin, the first name given to the group was the Kôrin school; it was also, however, referred to as the Kôetsu school as well as the Sôtatsu-Kôetsu school, after other principal members. Today it is most commonly known as Rinpa, a name composed of the second character in '(Kô)rin’ and the character 'ha’ (school).

This temporary exhibition offers insight into the ways the production of later Rinpa painters was intertwined, the art-historical propagation of the painting tradition (as the Kôrin school) by means of publications, and the collecting throughout Europe that stemmed from it. Works from around 1906, during the museum’s early years, are exhibited here for the first time alongside the permanent loan from the Museen der Stadt Nürnberg, from the collection of economist Carl Johannes Fuchs (1865–1934), as well as a loan from a recently established private collection.