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Furuya Kōrin

Japanese designer and painter

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ30609016 ↗
Source-derived summary

Furuya Kōrin (古谷紅麟; also known as Kōrin Furuya, Furutani Kōrin, 1875–1910) was a Japanese artist, illustrator, and designer active in the Kyoto arts and crafts circle in the Meiji period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His pseudonym references Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716), also from Kyoto, and he described himself as a "Kōrin of the modern age".

Biography

Born in Kaizu, Shiga Prefecture in 1875, Kōrin studied with Suzuki Mannen, Kamisaka Sekka and Asai Chu. He won the painting category of the Shinko Bijutsu Tenrankai (Exhibition of New and Old Art) in 1897. He taught at the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts from 1905, being appointed an assistant professor before his death in 1910.

Among his works are popular illustrated books in the Rinpa tradition. Kōrin Patterns (Kōrin moyō) (1907), a two-volume, ink-on-paper work originally conceived as a sample book for the kimono industry, became popular with people interested in fashion. John T. Carpenter of the Metropolitan Museum of Art describes the book as "impressive". It contains images based on wave patterns as well as the traditional boatman in a skiff. Other works published by Yamada Unsōdō include several orihon (concertina-type binding) books with patterns based on flowers and plants (1905), pine trees (1905) and bamboo (1907).

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Furuya Kōrin” is japanese designer and painter. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Furuya, Kōrin and Japanese, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1875, 1910, 1658, 1716—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1875. For this dossier, Furuya, Kōrin and Japanese is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “japanese designer and painter” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q30609016. VIAF identifies the subject as 34404513. The Library of Congress control number is nr2003041540. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1875, 1910, 1658 and 1716.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Furuya Kōrin”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Furuya Kōrin primary sources, Furuya Kōrin archive and Furuya research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Furuya Kōrin”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Furuya Kōrin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.