波に舟図屏風|Boats upon Waves

Tawaraya Sōtatsu

mid- to late 17th century · Six-panel folding screen; ink, color, and gold on paper · Asian Art

This work relates closely to a pair of screens by the celebrated early seventeenth-century Kyoto painter Sōtatsu depicting Matsushima, a scenic locale near Sendai in northern Japan named after its tiny islands dotted with pines. The present screen echoes Sōtatsu’s earlier composition with its gold-filled cloud formations and its rocks in vibrant shades of brown, blue, and green. However, growing from the rocks are maple trees with autumnal leaves, not pines, and newly introduced are two empty boats adrift on gently rolling waves. These details generate a somber, mysterious atmosphere.

Artist

Tawaraya Sōtatsu

Date

mid- to late 17th century

Medium

Six-panel folding screen; ink, color, and gold on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Gift of Horace Havemeyer, 1949