He helped produce the Yūzū nembutsu engi (融通念仏縁起絵)[1] housed in the Seiryō-ji, a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan.
One of the works of Awataguchi Takamitsu were referred to in the diary of Prince Sadashige Fushimi which was known as "Kanbun-gyoki" and was described as scroll paintings known as Ashibiki-e (芦引絵).
In Prince Fushimi's diary the Ashibiki-e are summarized as five volumes of scrolls that were painted by a court painter known as Awataguchi Takamitsu in the Ōei period.
Prince Fushimi went on to say that these paintings by Takamitsu were stored in the monastery on Eizan until the ninth year of Eikyō (1436 CE) when the fourth volume's text was removed so that it would be rewritten by Emperor Go-Hanazono.
In the tenth year of Eikyō complete sets of scrolls were made by the emperor and texts were added to them.
Emperor Go-Hanazono wrote the texts in the first and fifth scrolls originally made by Awataguchi Takamitsu himself, and had Prince Sadashige and the other court nobles write the rest of them.
In relation to this record, two volumes of the Ashibiki-e scrolls by Awataguchi Takamitsu were created during the Ōei and Eikyō ages.
The Ashikaga ruled in Japan for almost 200 years but didn't extensively exert their political control like the Kamakura bakufu.
Priest painters from this period who included the likes of Josetsu, Shubun, and Sesshu who are important Japanese landscapists and who represented Zen Buddhism can be used to showcase the representation of Zen Buddhism in paintings as illustrated in the paintings of Awataguchi Takamitsu.
This form of painting is characterized by emphasis on unfilled space, forceful quick brushstrokes, asymmetrical composition and the economy of execution.