Jittoku

Artist Tawaraya Sōtatsu (Japanese, active 1600 - 1640)

DateEdo period (1615-1868)

MediumHanging scroll; ink on paper

DimensionsImage: 37 1/2 x 15 1/4 inches (95.25 x 38.74 cm)
Mount: 5 feet 11 inches x 20 1/4 inches (180.34 x 51.44 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mrs. George H. Bunting Jr.

Object number67-45/3

On View

Not on view

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Rimpa : Masterworks of the Japanese Decorative School, Japan House Gallery, New York, NY, September 18 – November 14, 1971.

Gallery Label

A pioneer of the Rimpa School, Tawaraya So¯tatsu was celebrated for his versatile styles in painting and paper design. In this painting, So¯tatsu follows Zen tradition in depicting the famous eccentric Jittoku in monochrome, using just a few strokes and ink washes against a blank ackground. His soft, restrained brushwork and carefully graduated tones are characteristic of the elegant art of Rimpa. Indeed, it is elegance and calm rather than eccentricity and spontaneity that reign in this painting.

Provenance

With Mrs. George H. Bunting Jr. (née Karen Dean Bitler, 1912-1981), Shawnee Mission, KS, by December 29, 1967;

Her gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1967.

Published References

Ross E. Taggart, George L. McKenna, and Marc F. Wilson, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. II, Art of the Orient. (Kansas City, MO: The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973) 108, (repro.).

Apollo, special issue for the Asian art collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Vol. XCVII, no. 133 (March 1973) 276, no.5, (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993) 364, (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008) 390, no.35, (repro.).

Sherman E. Lee, Japanese Decorative Style, (New York: Harper & Row, 1972) 64, 142, no. 62, (repro.).

Asia Society, Archives of Asian Art, xxii, 1968-69, 117, fig.38, (repro.).

Harold P. Stern, Rimpa: Masterworks of the Japanese Decorative School, exh. cat. (New York, NY: Japan House Gallery, 1971) no. 8, (repro.).

The Nelson-Atkins Gallery & Atkins Museum, The Nelson Gallery & Atkins Museum Bulletin, vol. IV, no.12 (May, 1971): 32 (repro.).

Carla M Zainie, “The Eccentric Hermits Han-shan and Shih-te: Three Late Paintings in the Nelson Gallery” in The Nelson Gallery & Atkins Museum Bulletin, Vol. V, no. 3 (February, 1976) 18, fig. 1, (repro.).

Chisawa Shinji, ed., “Sōtatsu” in Nihon no Bijutsu (Tokyo: Shibun-do, 1968) no.31, (repro.).

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