Page 15 - Designing_Nature_The_Rinpa_Aesthetic_in_Japanese_Art Metropolitan Museum PUB

Mitsunobu (1434 – 1525), by his seventeenth-century descen- recent times. The reestablishment of his place in the history
dant Mitsuoki (1617 – 1691), Bamboo in the Four Seasons nev- of Japanese art thus goes hand in hand with the recogni-
ertheless is a fine example of the kind of Tosa painting on tion — or invention, as the case may be — of Rinpa as a

natural themes to which a privileged machi-eshi (“townsman distinct “school” or style. It is impossible to isolate with
painter,” meaning a painter unaffiliated with the establish- any authority works by Sōtatsu from those executed by the
ment schools) such as Sōtatsu would have had direct access. artists in his studio; the same holds true for unrelated works
As Sōtatsu and his followers absorbed such imagery, in their that were erroneously attributed to him during the Rinpa

own works they reduced it to essential elements, capturing revival of the Meiji period (1868 – 1912). That is not of pri-
shapes in silhouette, with little or no interior detail, rather mary concern here, however, since our goal is to trace the
than rendering individual leaves or blossoms. origins and transmissions of the style, not to reconstitute the
The rise of Rinpa in the early seventeenth century coin- respective oeuvres of the various Rinpa masters.

cided with the establishment of the bakufu (military gov- The details of Sōtatsu’s biography must be extrapolated
ernment) in Edo (modern Tokyo), far to the east of the from a few snippets of documentary evidence, such as a
ancient imperial capital of Kyoto. The chief patrons of Rinpa popular novel of the day that mentions in passing a boldly
artists thus included the new warrior elite as well as the colored fan painting based on the “Twilight Beauty” (Yūgao)

traditional courtiers and wealthy merchants (machishū). All chapter of The Tale of Genji. (In the novel, Chikusai, a doc-
of the players on Kyoto’s cultural stage, including Emperor tor from the countryside who travels to Kyoto encounters
Go-Mizunoo (1596 – 1680; r. 1611 – 29) and palace society, a person who has a “Tawaraya fan.” ) We know that his
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were dedicated to the traditional arts of poetry and painting, studio made poem cards (shikishi) as well as more elaborate

and they also cultivated an interest in the arts of flower underpaintings for handscrolls. The decorated shikishi
arranging and gardening, another crucial impetus in the attributed to Sōtatsu (no surviving example bears his signa-
emergence of an art form that exalted natural motifs. With ture) draw on traditional Japanese decorative motifs.
the expansion of patronage to the samurai elite and machishū, Emphasis is placed on flowers and grasses with auspicious

who sought the same enjoyments, sense of fulfillment, and or literary connotations, which as a rule are rendered in flat,
social validation that participation and support of the arts silhouetted forms.
can bring, the spirit of Rinpa remained alive throughout Sōtatsu used the highest quality paper available,
the entire Edo period (1615 – 1868) despite stretches of time including that produced by Kamishi (Paper Master) Sōji,

when the school had no apparent artistic leader. whose seal has been found on the reverse of some Sōtatsu
school works. occasionally these designs were painted by
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decorated Shikishi hand, but more often the underpainting was created using
Although Sōtatsu’s role as the head of a painting atelier in stencils or stamps, no doubt with an eye to cost efficiency

the early Edo period was never completely forgotten by in studio productions, since in the end the superscribed
painting cognoscenti of the eighteenth and early nineteenth calligraphy was the prime object of attention. Also, as we
centuries, it was nonetheless not common knowledge until shall see, one of the characteristics of the Rinpa aesthetic
a history of rinpa

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