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undocumented until modern times, and only in the past embrace the entire range of yamato-e subjects.) To under-
century have attempts been made to reconstruct them. stand the stylistic experimentation and innovation that the
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We have no solid evidence as to which works Sōtatsu and originators of Rinpa brought to this tradition, we must first

his circle had access to, but it is clear that they drew inspi- be aware of the kinds of art on natural themes that sur-
ration from the rich tradition of earlier yamato-e and from rounded Japanese artists of the early seventeenth century.
works by the renowned painters of their day, most notably large-format paintings with floral or faunal subjects —
the artists of the two main establishment schools: the Tosa, a set of screens, for example, or painted sliding-door

who counted on the palace and courtier class for commis- panels (fusuma-e) — were commonly created during the
sions, and the Kano, who at first catered to the warrior elite Muromachi (1392 – 1573) and Momoyama (1573 – 1615) periods
but eventually usurped the Tosa clientele. Broadly speak- as part of temple, palace, or castle settings. The focus of
ing, the Tosa school focused on traditional Japanese literary such works could be a pine or bamboo or perhaps a flower-

themes and worked in a colorful yamato-e manner, while ing species such as a plum or cherry tree. In contrast to the
the Kano mastered Chinese-style brush techniques to render bravura brushwork of the Kano school, Tosa artists, in both
imported Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist, and other Sinophilic palette and expression, took a less assertive approach, as seen
pictorial themes. Both created works on bird-and-flower in the formalized, rhythmical landscape of early Tosa works

topics, but the distinctive brushwork and coloration of each such as Bamboo in the Four Seasons (fig. 1). Although not designing nature
school, at least until the sixteenth century, were easily differ- enough comparable material survives for us to verify the
entiated. (later, Kano artists expanded their repertoire to attribution of the screens to the founder of the Tosa school,

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