TAWARAYA SOTATSU (C.1570-1640)

Almost nothing is known about Sotatsu, not even his life dates, but he and his Tawaraya workshop in Kyoto used the circular red I’nen or Taiseiken seal and specialized in large-scale, showy screens of flowers and grasses, as well as fan paintings.
Forms are simplified and abstracted, with a fresh eye for novelty. Sotatsu favored a technique of puddled ink known as tarashikomi to create soft textures. Here, the artist uses tarashikomi effectively to convey soft feathers on the duck’s stretched wings. The flattened, rounded silhouettes of the duck recall Sotatsu's famous standing screen with reeds and flying ducks in Daigo-ji temple, Kyoto. For a similar painting depicting two flying ducks also signed Sotatsu Hokkyo and sealed Taiseiken, see Tawaraya Sotatsu to sono nagare - Sotatsukai hossoku kujyunen kinen tokubetsu ten (Tawaraya Sotatsu and his school: Special exhibition commemorating the 90th year anniversary of the Sotatsu Association (Kanazawa: Nakamura Memorial Museum, 2003), no. 21.