Waves at Matsushima 松島図屏風
date: label: Date
content: 17th century
label: Period
content: Edo period
name: label: Artist
content: Tawaraya Sotatsu 俵屋宗達 (fl. ca. 1600-1643)
notes: label: Label
content: The brilliant paintings on this pair of folding screens are regarded as masterpieces among only six surviving sets of screens by Sotatsu, a talented and innovative artist who headed a painting workshop known as Tawaraya. As a townsman, Sotatsu produced paintings such as fans for popular consumption. By the late 1620s, however, Sotatsu was painting for the imperial court, and his works survive in the collections of the Kyoto imperial palace. For his artistic merit, he was granted the honorary Buddhist ecclesiastical title Hokkyo (Bridge of the Law), which is included in his signature on these screens.
label: Label
content: Matsushima (Pine Islands) is the name of a famous site (meisho) near Sendai, a city in Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan. Its beauty inspired both poets and painters. In Sotatsu's screens the rock from which pine trees grow are rendered in brilliant mineral colors of green, blue, and brown, highlighted with gold. Waves in animated forms are delineated in alternating lines of ink and gold, producing a luminous effect. Clouds and embankments are rendered in particles of gold leaf accented with silver, which has darkened over time to a soft black tone.
label: Label
content: Sotatsu's innovative composition creates a dynamic interplay among the land and cloud forms, the bending pines, and churning waves. His lifelong interest in pictorial composition left a lasting legacy. Later painters of the Rimpa school, such as Ogata Korin (1658-1716), repeated the Matsushima theme in their work. The Matsushima screens were probably painted in the early Kan'ei era (1624-44), a period of cultural efflorescence in Kyoto.
label: Provenance
content: To 1906
label: Provenance
content: Bunshichi Kobayashi (circa 1861-1923), Boston, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Yokohama, to 1906 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1906 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunshichi Kobayashi in 1906 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Original Screen List, S.I. 123-124, L. 115, pg. 34, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Rinpa Screens (February 25, 2023 to February 24, 2024)
label: Exhibition History
content: Sotatsu: Making Waves (Saturday, October 24, 2015 to Sunday, January 31, 2016)
label: Exhibition History
content: Waves at Matsushima (May 28 to July 25, 2011)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Screens (March 2007 to January 3, 2016)
label: Exhibition History
content: Freer: A Taste for Japanese Art (July 1, 2006 to January 1, 2007)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art in the Age of Koetsu (June 6, 1998 to February 15, 1999)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Screens (August 13, 1997 to May 4, 1998)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Screens (May 9, 1993 to November 13, 1995)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Screens (February 11, 1983 to July 19, 1988)
label: Exhibition History
content: Rimpa Screens (October 9, 1980 to December 21, 1981)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Lacquer (April 16, 1979 to October 8, 1980)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art (July 1, 1974 to April 10, 1978)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art—Painted Screens (August 18, 1967 to May 2, 1973)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art, Galleries 3, 4, and 5 (January 1, 1963 to September 16, 1970)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Screen Paintings (March 10, 1961 to January 1, 1963)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Screens, 1957 (March 20, 1957 to March 30, 1960)
label: Exhibition History
content: Centennial Exhibition, Gallery 5 (February 25, 1956 to March 15, 1957)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Screens (October 3, 1947 to November 10, 1955)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Screens and Scrolls, 1946 (April 30, 1946 to October 3, 1947)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Screens and Scrolls (April 5, 1933 to December 8, 1941)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Screens, 1923 (May 2, 1923 to April 5, 1933)
label: Exhibition History
content: A Selection of Art Objects from the Freer Collection Exhibited in the New Building of the National Museum (April 15 to June 15, 1912)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Kobayashi Bunshichi 小林文七 (ca. 1861-1923) (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: Japan
topic: label: Topic
content: Edo period (1615 - 1868)
label: Topic
content: water
label: Topic
content: ocean
label: Topic
content: Japan
label: Topic
content: wave
label: Topic
content: Japanese Art
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1906.231-232
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Ink, color, gold, and silver on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (overall [each]): 166 x 369.9 cm (65 3/8 x 145 5/8 in)