Sōtatsu: Making Waves exhibition
Collections in the U.S. and Japan, including Waves at Matsushima, shown together as well as works by Sōtatsu-related artists

Freer and Sōtatsu

Two of Sōtatsu’s greatest works, the Waves at Matsushima screens and the Dragons and Clouds screens are in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Undoubtedly if these works were in Japan the government would have designated them as National Treasures. Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919) made his fortune by building rail cars. After retiring in his mid-forties he shifted his energies to art collecting. He visited Japan many times, acquiring works of Japanese art, primarily of the early modern era. The quantity and quality of his collection rivals that of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The two Sōtatsu works are major examples of that quality. However, when he donated his collection to the U.S. government he made the stipulation that none of the works could be lent outside the museum. This has meant that art lovers must visit the Freer Gallery of Art in order to see those masterpieces.

Sōtatsu in the 20th Century

Ogata Kōrin took Sōtatsu as his artistic model, and Sakai Hōitsu modeled his work after that of Kōrin. These artists came to be known as the Rimpa lineage in the late Meiji period. Surprisingly, Sōtatsu was not generally known until the Taishō period (1912–1926). Freer purchased his two Sōtatsu works prior to this general recognition, and this purchase made him as a pioneer in the understanding of Sōtatsu’s arts.

From the Taishō era onwards, essentially the majority of the 20th century, many Japanese painters have been fascinated by Sōtatsu’s richly individualistic expression. These artists include Shikō Imamura, Kokei Kobayashi, Hyakusui Hirafuku, Heihachirō Fukuda, Hōshun Yamaguchi, Seison Maeda and Yuki Ogura. Rather than simply copying Sōtatsu, they experimented with revealing the contemporary fascination with Sōtatsu through their own unique forms of expression.