Tawara Sōtatsu

was a Japanese furniture designer and painter of the Rinpa school.

Sōtatsu is best known for his decorations of calligraphic works by his partner Hon'ami Kōetsu (1558–1637), and his spectacular and highly influential byōbu folding screens, such as National Treasures Wind God and Thunder God and his painting of the Sekiya and Miotsukushi chapters from The Tale of Genji. He also popularized a technique called tarashikomi, in which a second layer of paint is applied before the first layer is dry. Rinpa was not strictly a school, Some of the most notable Rinpa artists are Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716), Ogata Kenzan (1663–1743) and Sakai Hōitsu (1761–1828). While not particularly known at the time he lived and painted, he is now the second-most recognized Japanese painter in terms of number of inclusions in the National Treasures of Japan list. The painter Tani Bunchō (1763–1841) stated that Sōtatsu was originally from Noto and that he studied under Sumiyoshi Jokei in Kyoto. His family name may have been Nonomura. This is the earliest paintings attributed to Sōtatsu, but it already features the characteristics of his later work.

The first confirmed collaboration with Hon'ami Kōetsu (1558–1637) is in the Sagabon (Saga Books), an ambitious project started around 1606 by Suminokura Soan (1571–1632) to publish elaborate editions of classical Japanese book

Works Waves at Matsushima, painted in the 1620s, is considered by some to be Sōtatsu's masterwork.

is a handscroll decorated by Sōtatsu using silver and gold pigment, with calligraphy by Hon'ami Kōetsu. It contains some of the finest calligraphy by Kōetsu and one of the best examples of Sōtatsu's decorative skills. The visual motif is that of cranes, which stand or fly in flocks across the entire length of the scroll.

is a pair of two-folded screens made using ink and color on gold-foiled paper. It depicts Raijin, the god of lightning, thunder and storms in the Shinto religion and in Japanese mythology, and Fūjin, the god of wind. The screens have no inscription or seal, but its attribution to Tawaraya Sotatsu is not questioned. All three versions of the work were displayed together for the first time in seventy-five years in 2015, at the Kyoto National Museum exhibition "Rinpa: The Aesthetics of the Capital". Details about the ownership of this painting prior to its purchase by Charles Lang Freer in 1905 from the art dealer Bunshichi Kobayashi are unknown, but it's now considered one of the finest example's of Sotatsu's use of the tarashikomi wet-on-wet technique, in which ink is artfully pooled to create features such as the clouds. The ascending, larger dragon on one side soars towards the heavens in spring, whereas the side's dragon descends into the abyss in fall.

Dragons and Clouds

Exhibitions

The Freer Gallery of Art organized the first retrospective outside Japan from October 2015 to January 2016.