Born into the Hon'ami family, prominent Kyoto townspeople since the Muromachi period. The family's hereditary business was the appraisal and polishing of swords, and as cultivated men they were versed in calligraphy, ceramics and lacquer. Celebrated as one of the "Three Brushes of the Kan'ei era", Koetsu is known for a decorative calligraphy of strongly varied thick and thin strokes, shown to splendid effect in his collaborations with Sotatsu. He also showed a gift for design in the applied arts and for raku tea bowls, and the sheer inventiveness of his lacquer speaks to a powerful sense of design. Today his work as what we would call an art coordinator and director is being reassessed. At fifty-eight he received the land at Takagamine from Tokugawa Ieyasu and built there an artists' village that became the base of his work.