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not connected as a single story; rather, it comprises disparate plane; the courtier is devoid of corporeality, while his deco-
episodes, each of which pivots on a poem or poetic exchange, rated blue garments are as flat as the paper they are
usually on amorous themes. A superb example of how painted on. The calligraphy should be considered not an

Sōtatsu translated such narrative content into a painted tab- intrusion into the composition but a complement to the visual
leau is a rendering of the “Mount Utsu” (Utsu no yama) epi- program, in which the phrases of the poem, following the
sode, also popularly known as the “Ivy Path” (Tsuta no chirashigaki technique, are arranged in columns of artificially

hosomichi), since artists sometimes reduced the entire scene varied length and staggered into two sections, with the over-
to an image of an ivy-covered mountain path (cat. 1). 8 all diagonal arrangement echoing the mountainous setting.
The scene shows the courtier and his attendant traveling We can detect in such representations of traditional
in the foothills of Mount Utsu, in Suruga province. In court tales an intentional distancing from the narrative con-
accordance with the story, on a winding mountain path over- tent, even though the story is still the purported inspiration.

grown with ivy and maple trees the pair comes upon a While it might be going too far to consider such scenes a form
religious ascetic, whom the courtier recognizes and asks to of parody (mitate), as some have suggested, the point is well
transmit a poem back to his former lover in the capital. In the taken that we should not go to the other extreme and por-

poem, the courtier bemoans the fact that he can no longer tray it as a revival or “renaissance” of Heian court culture.
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see his love, even in his dreams, which according to ancient Traditional poetic and literary sensibilities underlie much
beliefs would have been an indication that she was think- of the work of the Sōtatsu studio at this early stage and must
ing of him, too, since lovers are able to meet in dreams have been important cultural priorities for its clientele,
(for a translation of the poem, see p. 48). but from a purely pictorial stance we can say that fidelity to

As with most representations of the “Mount Utsu” plot or fictive scenery was less important than conjuring up
scene — whether in the early deluxe printed editions the aura of a dreamlike past. Furthermore, even in the
known as Saga-bon, painted versions by Sōtatsu, or in the earliest stages of the Rinpa aesthetic, we can observe artists

works of later successors such as Fukae Roshū (see cat. 2) — distilling, formalizing, and even abstracting natural motifs
the episode is reduced to an absolute minimum of landscape in scenes drawn from narrative tales. Ultimately, this was
elements. The mountain setting, for example, is suggested just the beginning of a centuries-long process — continued
by a sinuous path rising vertically amid rounded boulders, by Sōtatsu’s successors in future generations — of removing
the latter rendered in broad, flattened expanses of mala- conspicuous narrative content from nature imagery and

chite green and azurite blue. The abbreviated suggestion allowing the signified meaning to be ignored or reinserted
of mountainscape suffices to convey the lugubrious setting according to the viewer’s own literary predilections.
suggested by the name Utsu no yama, literally “mountain of

sadness.” To render facial features, the artist employed the the iconic Waves at Matsushima screens
“line for the eye, hook for the nose” (hikime kagihana) Sōtatsu’s skills as a painter came to be highly regarded
technique, borrowed from ancient yamato-e handscroll among the uppermost echelons of Kyoto society, including
painting. The entire composition is rendered in a flattened the imperial household, which granted him the honorary
a history of rinpa

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