A pair of two-panel screens, Rimpa school [each 159 x 161 cm]

Studio of Kiwaraya Sôtatsu

Early Edo period, 17^th century

Flowers and grasses of the four seasons

Pair of two-panel screens, 159 x 161 cm

Ink, color and gold flakes on paper, mounted on brocade

Sealed “Inen” in a large circle in red ink

This pair of screens belongs to a genre of lyrical paintings of flowers, grasses, and other plants that flourished around the middle of the seventeenth century and became a speciality of the Sôtatsu studio. The use of a rather complex composition of clusters of flowers, and the puddling of ink (especially noticeable here in the leaves) was initiated by Tawaraya Sôtatsu, the founder of the Rimpa school, who was active from 1600 until 1642. Painting ateliers led by Sôtatsu’s followers continued through the end of the seventeenth century. On the whole, the identity of these followers remains a mystery; most did not sign their work but simply impressed one of Sôtatsu’s seals – especially the round, red Inen seal that appears on the example shown here – on their paintings. Only two followers of Sôtatsu, Tawaraya Sosetsu (active ca. 1640-50) and Kitagawa Sosetsu (active in the 1680s) are known by name. In 1642 Tawaraya Sosetsu became the official painter-in-residence for the Maeda family, the daimyô of Kaga province (Ishikawa prefecture) on the Japan sea, north of Kyoto. A workshop was established in Kanazawa, the site of the Maeda castle.

The screens are abstract and decorative in a way that is uniquely Japanese, but there is at the same time a keen sense of naturalism not only in the attention to accurate detail, but in the profusion of vegetation, some of it rather novel.

These Rinpa screens were made for aristocratic patrons. The pattern of flowers spread over a gold surface was typical of the yamato-e aesthetic favoured by the nobility. The passage of the year is symbolised by the variety of plants that bloom in different seasons. Painted without outlines, this style is characterised as “boneless.” Its delicacy, preciousness, and effeminacy is identified with the over-refinement of its patrons, while the vigour, monochromatic discipline, sharp observation, and virile forms of the Kano school are a testament to the vitality of the rising warrior class.

The Inen seal had been used by Tawaraya Sôtatsu and by members of his school, both in combination with a signature and alone. The name is thought to be either Sôtatsu’s artistic name (gou) or the name of his studio, but is unclear. On works directly attributable to Sôtatsu and his follower, Tawaraya Sôsetsu (fl.1642), the Inen seal is a large round seal in red ink like in the screen presented here.