was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

furniture designer and

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

of the

Rinpa school is one of the major historical schools of Japanese painting. It was created in 17th century Kyoto by Hon'ami Kōetsu (1558–1637) and Tawaraya Sōtatsu (d. c.1643). Roughly fifty years later, the style was consolidated by brothers Ogata Kōrin ( ...

. Sōtatsu is best known for his decorations of calligraphic works by his partner

Hon'ami Kōetsu Hon'ami Kōetsu ( ja, 本阿弥光悦; 1558 – 27 February 1637) was a Japanese craftsman, potter, lacquerer, and calligrapher, whose work is generally considered to have inspired the founding of the Rinpa school of painting. Robert Hug ...

(1558–1637), and his spectacular and highly influential ''

byōbu are Japanese folding screens made from several joined panels, bearing decorative painting and calligraphy, used to separate interiors and enclose private spaces, among other uses. History are thought to have originated in Han dynasty C ...

'' folding screens, such as National Treasures ''Wind God and Thunder God'' and his painting of the ''Sekiya'' and ''Miotsukushi'' chapters from The Tale of Genji. He also popularized a technique called '' tarashikomi'', in which a second layer of paint is applied before the first layer is dry. He is also credited with co-founding the

Japanese painting is one of the oldest and most highly refined of the Japanese visual arts, encompassing a wide variety of genres and styles. As with the history of Japanese arts in general, the long history of Japanese painting exhibits synthesis and competitio ...

, together with Kōetsu.''Bridge of Dreams: the Mary Griggs Burke collection of Japanese art''. (2000) p. 308. ''Rinpa'' was not strictly a school, but a group of artist directly influenced by Sōtatsu and Kōetsu. Some of the most notable Rinpa artists are

Ogata Kōrin Ogata Kōrin ( ja, 尾形光琳; 1658 – June 2, 1716) was a Japanese landscape illustrator, lacquerer, painter, and textile designer of the Rinpa School. Kōrin is best known for his ''byōbu'' folding screens, such as '' Irises'' and ' ...

(1658–1716),

Ogata Kenzan , originally , and also known by the pseudonym Shisui, was a Japanese potter and painter. Biography Ogata Kenzan was born in Kyoto into a rich merchant family. His older brother was the painter Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716). Kenzan studied with the ...

(1663–1743) and

Sakai Hōitsu Sakai Hōitsu ( ja, 酒井抱一; August 1, 1761 – January 4, 1829) was a Japanese painter of the Rinpa school. He is known for having revived the style and popularity of Ogata Kōrin, and for having created a number of reproductions of ...

(1761–1828).

Biography

The exact date of Sōtatsu's birth, probably around 1570, remains unknown, and so does the place of his birth.''Bridge of Dreams: the Mary Griggs Burke collection of Japanese art''. (2000) p. 216. The painter

Tani Bunchō was a Japanese literati (''bunjin'') painter and poet. Biography He was the son of the poet Tani Rokkoku (1729–1809). As his family were retainers of the Tayasu Family of descendants of the eighth Tokugawa ''shōgun'', Bunchō inherited ...

(1763–1841) stated that Sōtatsu was originally from

Noto Noto ( scn, Notu; la, Netum) is a city and in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily, Italy. It is southwest of the city of Syracuse at the foot of the Iblean Mountains. It lends its name to the surrounding area Val di Noto. In 2002 Noto and i ...

and that he studied under Sumiyoshi Jokei in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

. His family name may have been Nonomura. In 1602 he was hired by the Taira family to repair the 12th-century sutra scrolls ''Heike nōkyō'' at the

Itsukushima shrine is a Shinto jinja (shrine), shrine on the island of Itsukushima (popularly known as Miyajima, Hiroshima, Miyajima), best known for its "floating" ''torii'' gate.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005)"''Itsukushima-jinja''"in ''Japa ...

Miyajima may refer to: Places * Miyajima, another name for the Japanese island Itsukushima * Miyajima, Hiroshima, a former town on this island, merged into Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima is a city located in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The name derives from a m ...

. This is the earliest paintings attributed to Sōtatsu, but it already features the characteristics of his later work. It is suspected that Kōetsu might have also worked in the repair of the scroll.''Bridge of Dreams: the Mary Griggs Burke collection of Japanese art''. (2000) p. 210. The first confirmed collaboration with

(1558–1637) is in the ''Sagabon'' (Saga Books), an ambitious project started around 1606 by Suminokura Soan (1571–1632) to publish elaborate editions of classical Japanese book and

Noh is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today. Although the terms Noh and ' ...

librettos. Sōtatsu created the designs for the covers and paper of many of the books, while Kōetsu was the calligrapher of some of the texts. The name ''Sagabon'' comes from the suburb of

where the book were produced. Sōtatsu married a cousin of Koetsu. He also opened a shop in

, named Tawaraya, where he sold a variety of decorated objects, including fans, lantern paper, screens, dolls and patterns for kimono, and also took commissions for decorating interiors. The shop soon gained recognition for its artistic excellence. The collaboration between Sōtatsu and Kōetsu came to an end around 1620, perhaps because he was moving away from the profession of decorator and designer, and started focusing more on his career as a painter. He decorated the doors and screens of the Yōgen-in temple during the reconstruction ordered by

Tokugawa Hidetada was the second ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was bo ...

's wife in 1621, and in 1630 he was given the title of ''hokkyō'' ("Bridge of the Dharma"), the third highest rank awarded to Buddhist artists. The circumstances of Sōtatsu's death are not known, but he probably died around 1640. The most successful among his direct students were Tawaraya Sōsetsu and Kitawaga Sōsetsu.

Works

is a handscroll decorated by Sōtatsu using silver and gold pigment, with calligraphy by

. It contains some of the finest calligraphy by Kōetsu and one of the best examples of Sōtatsu's decorative skills. The work was most likely produced between 1602 and 1620, the period during which Sōtatsu and Kōetsu are generally considered to have worked together. The text of the scroll is a compilation of

waka Waka may refer to: Culture and language * Waka (canoe), a Polynesian word for canoe; especially, canoes of the Māori of New Zealand ** Waka ama, a Polynesian outrigger canoe ** Waka hourua, a Polynesian ocean-going canoe ** Waka taua, a Māori w ...

poems from the poets known collectively as ''

Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry The are a group of Japanese poets of the Asuka, Nara, and Heian periods selected by Fujiwara no Kintō as exemplars of Japanese poetic ability. The oldest surviving collection of the 36 poets' works is ''Nishi Honganji Sanju-rokunin Kashu'' ...

'' ("Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry"), including one poem from each one of the 36 members of the group. The visual motif is that of cranes, which stand or fly in flocks across the entire length of the scroll. The skill of Sōtatsu's design and its "cutting-edge originality" have been highly praised. Anthology with Cranes I.png, Anthology with Cranes IV.png, The scroll measures 34.1 cm x 1356 cm and belongs to the

Kyoto National Museum The is one of the major art museums in Japan. Located in Kyoto's Higashiyama ward, the museum focuses on pre-modern Japanese and Asian art. History The Kyoto National Museum, then the Imperial Museum of Kyoto, was proposed, along with the Imp ...

. It is an Important Cultural Property. Poem Scroll with Deer is another collaboration with Hon'ami Kōetsu. Silver and gold deer frolic alongside poems from the anthology

Shin Kokinshu Shin may refer to: Biology * The front part of the human leg below the knee * Shinbone, the tibia, the larger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates Names * Shin (given name) (Katakana: シン, Hiragana: しん), a Japanese ...

(新古今集). It was split into fragments after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The largest contiguous section, accounting for more than one-third of the complete work, is currently at the

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Cap ...

. is a pair of two-folded screens made using ink and color on gold-foiled paper. It depicts

Raijin , also known as , , , and Kamowakeikazuchi-no-kami is a god of lightning, thunder and storms in Japanese mythology and the Shinto religion. He is typically depicted with fierce and aggressive facial expressions, standing atop a cloud, beatin ...

, the god of lightning, thunder and storms in the

Shinto religion Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

and in

Japanese mythology Japanese mythology is a collection of traditional stories, folktales, and beliefs that emerged in the islands of the Japanese archipelago. Shinto and Buddhist traditions are the cornerstones of Japanese mythology. The history of thousands of year ...

, and

Fūjin or is the Japanese god of the wind and one of the eldest Shinto gods. He is portrayed as a terrifying wizardly demon, resembling a red-headed green-skinned humanoid wearing a leopard skin, carrying a large bag of winds on his shoulders. In Ja ...

, the god of wind. The screens have no inscription or seal, but its attribution to Tawaraya Sotatsu is not questioned. It is a particularly prominent work in the Rinpa school because two other of its major figures,

(1658–1716) and

(1761–1828), replicated the painting in homage (see Kōrin's version). All three versions of the work were displayed together for the first time in seventy-five years in 2015, at the

exhibition "Rinpa: The Aesthetics of the Capital". Wind God and Thunder God Screens by Tawaraya Sotatsu hi-res.png, Wind God Fujin (right) and Thunder God Raijin (left) Each screen measures 169.8 cm × 154.5 cm (66.9 in × 60.8 in). They belong to the

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

temple

Kennin-ji is a historic Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan, and head temple of its associated branch of Rinzai Buddhism. It is considered to be one of the so-called Kyoto ''Gozan'' or "five most important Zen temples of Kyoto". History Kennin-ji was ...

, but they are exhibited occasionally in the

. They are a

National Treasure of Japan Some of the National Treasures of Japan A is the most precious of Japan's Tangible Cultural Properties, as determined and designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (a special body of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Scien ...

Exhibitions

The

Freer Gallery of Art The Freer Gallery of Art is an art museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. focusing on Asian art. The Freer and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery together form the National Museum of Asian Art in the United States. The Freer and Sac ...

organized the first retrospective outside Japan from October 2015 to January 2016.

Notes

References

* Murashige, Yasushi. ''Sōtatsu''. Sansaisha, Tokyo, 1970. * Gowing, L (ed.) 1995, ''A Biographical Dictionary of Artists'', Rev. edn, Andromeda Oxford Limited, Oxfordshire.
''Bridge of Dreams: the Mary Griggs Burke collection of Japanese art''
(2000) The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries. (fully available online as PDF)

External links

Momoyama, Japanese Art in the Age of Grandeur
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Tawaraya Sōtatsu {{DEFAULTSORT:Tawaraya, Sotatsu Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown 17th-century Japanese painters Artists from Kyoto Buddhist artists Japanese furniture designers Japanese industrial designers Rinpa school