Page 89 - Designing_Nature_The_Rinpa_Aesthetic_in_Japanese_Art Metropolitan Museum PUB

As an artistic mode, Rinpa is associated primarily with stylized
renderings of natural imagery. Only rarely are human figures — usually courtiers
or court ladies situated in palace settings, gardens, or landscapes — the focus of a

composition. Notable exceptions include those rarefied individuals who achieved
immortal or divine status, from the legendary poets of Japan’s courtly past to Daoist
sages and Buddhist masters. The depiction of holy men was clearly popular among

the artists of the Sōtatsu workshop and their successors, whose works on Daoist
and Buddhist subjects were inspired in part by Chinese printed illustrated manuals
such as Marvelous Traces of Daoist Immortals and Buddhist Masters (Ch: Xianfo
qizong; J: Senbutsu kisō), first published in 1602 and transmitted to Japan soon
thereafter. This compendium contains episodes relating to Daoist sages all the

way back to Laozi as well as to the patriarchs of Buddhism, from Shakyamuni
Buddha through the masters of Zen.
In contrast to the colorful palette associated with Rinpa-style fan and screen

paintings of courtly tales or flora and fauna, images of Daoist or Buddhist figures,
like other works with a didactic underpinning, were rendered entirely in ink. These
SAGES depictions of sages — which, along with the animal paintings by Sōtatsu and his

circle, are some of the most skillful monochrome ink paintings in the history of

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