What Is the Main Idea of Each Perspective on Sotatsu Held by Prof. Lippit?

What is the main idea of each perspective on Sōtatsu held by Prof. Lippit?

In the speech given by Professor Lippit, he had overviewed the relationship between Zen Buddhism and monochrome ink painting tradition in Japan. He proceeded by giving the five perspectives:

1. Later Reception

Sōtatsu was a forgotten figure, which his achievements were rediscovered in early 20th century. He was a court painter with a prestigious title, who also had a notable painted fan shop in the city and had interaction with many of the leading merchants in the early 17th century. A half-century after his death, his memories of achievements were in sharp decline.  Sōtatsu went unmentioned in the first major history of Japanese painting. This non-inclusion may be related to the fact that Sōtatsu’s successor Sosetsu became the painter and the attendance of the Mayada family and relocates the Koga domain. Sōtatsu’s shop lost its association with the leading status groups and became an increasingly unremarkable urban studio. The most decisive factor leading to the diminishing of Sōtatsu’s legacy was actually the admiration that it was held by Ogata Korin. It is well known that Korin copied a number of Sōtatsu’s works, including Waves at Matsushima. Other works were copied as done as commissions rather than as artistic studies means of further mastery of paintings. Those copies have the outcome of closely associated subject with Korin rather than with Sōtatsu in the later historical imagination. Korin became so famous that the sources of these works are later forgotten and will come to associate solely with him. This unintended appropriation of Sōtatsu’s copies by Korin will lead to a kind of sustained phase of Sōtatsu’s memory lasting into the modern era and finally be addressed to the many other artists.

2. The Tawaraya

These studios are districted from the official studios that intended the imperial court, the shaman and leading temples and shrines. They painted already-made objects for the wide-ranging clients as commissioned works. Sōtatsu’s painting shops were focused on small portable formats, namely folding fans. He is believed to be the first Japanese artist who embraces the format of two panels-folding screens as opposed to the common six panels. Scholars have noted the Tawaraya studio was in close approximate with the court lead school that was active in the same period, so they are acknowledged to the traditional practice and played an important role in the dissemination of classic painting subject e.g. The Tale of Genji.

3. Interregionalism

Sōtatsu’s artistic production reveals abundant inspiration from Chinese and Korean pictures that circulated through the Japanese archipelago at the time. A number of the ink paintings are draw of the main painted book in praise of immortality in Buddhism, which was observed to have a large influence in the East Asia. One of the most significant interregional practices that have developed is the staining technique in monochrome ink, known as drip ink e.g. Dragons and Clouds. It is derived from similar technique of wet on white ink technique from China, but it was applied to classical subjects, e.g. Ox, dragons. It is assumed that Sōtatsu gain access to works of international origin through high-ranking associates later in his years. Sōtatsu was closed to red-sealed merchants, who have been an important source of over years artistic references. The same for architecture, the use of 48 different uses of wood in the construction, some comes from the Far East Asia, reflecting of cultural contexts that Sōtatsu was active at the time.