The Buddhist nun Ōtagaki Rengetsu (1791–1875) has led a multitude of afterlives in modern Japan. This paper contributes to the discussion of her evolving image as an artist in nineteenth-century Japan. Whether intentional or not, through her art and interactions with friends and artistic collaborators, she fashioned an artistic persona that has continued to intrigue the scholarly and popular imagination. Although she was renowned for her waka poetry, pottery, and calligraphy, she claimed not to care for her growing reputation. In her view, she produced pottery out of economic necessity and enjoyed inscribing it with her favourite poems. She had a propensity for reclusion and elusiveness and when conditions in Kyoto became unbearable in 1865, a time of impending civil war, she escaped to a hermitage in the northern hills where she spent the last decade of her life. In the late nineteenth century, the performance of Rengetsu’s artistic persona was published in printed media such as a collection of her poetry and accounts of her life and work. By reiterating the coordinates of Rengetsu’s life and art, printed media participated in the performance of her artistic persona, starting a process of historicization that indicates the agency of female artists in shaping their image and legacy in modern Japan.
DOREEN MUELLER (Wed,) studied this question.