Tawaraya Sōtatsu

Sōtatsu is best known for his decorations of calligraphic works by his partner Hon'ami Kōetsu (1558–1637),[1] and his spectacular and highly influential byōbu folding screens, such as National Treasures Wind God and Thunder God[2] and his painting of the Sekiya and Miotsukushi chapters from The Tale of Genji.

While not particularly known at the time he lived and painted, he is now the second-most recognized Japanese painter in terms of number of inclusions in the National Treasures of Japan list.

[6] The painter Tani Bunchō (1763–1841) stated that Sōtatsu was originally from Noto and that he studied under Sumiyoshi Jokei in Kyoto.

[6] In 1602 he was hired by the Taira family to repair the 12th-century sutra scrolls Heike nōkyō at the Itsukushima shrine on Miyajima.

[10][6] 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.

[9] He decorated the doors and screens of the Yōgen-in temple during the reconstruction ordered by Tokugawa Hidetada's wife in 1621,[6] and in 1630 he was given the title of hokkyō[8] ("Bridge of the Dharma"), the third highest rank awarded to Buddhist artists.

[12] Anthology with Cranes (鶴図下絵和歌巻) is a handscroll decorated by Sōtatsu using silver and gold pigment, with calligraphy by Hon'ami Kōetsu.

[18] All three versions of the work were displayed together for the first time in seventy-five years in 2015, at the Kyoto National Museum exhibition "Rinpa: The Aesthetics of the Capital".

[5] Details about the ownership of this painting prior to its purchase by Charles Lang Freer in 1905 from the art dealer Bunshichi Kobayashi are unknown, but it's now considered one of the finest example's of Sotatsu's use of the tarashikomi wet-on-wet technique, in which ink is artfully pooled to create features such as the clouds.

[5] By the 17th-century, dragons had emerged as a popular motif on large format works such as folding screens and sliding door panels.