Red and White Plum Blossoms

Two plum trees, one red-flowering and one white-flowering, lean toward each other across a stream. The stream is painted in flat gold with sinuous black lines swirling through it. Recent scientific analysis (2005) showed that what looks like matte silver is actually gold leaf mixed with tin — a technique nobody has replicated. The trees themselves are painted in a technique Kōrin invented called tarashikomi, where wet ink is pooled onto wet ink and left to bleed. It is one of the most recognisable Japanese folding-screen paintings in existence. Now at MOA Museum of Art, Atami.