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Artistic Dialogues

Very little is known about Sōtatsu’s life. But it is clear that by 1600, he was regarded as a skilled repairer of ancient sutra scrolls and had begun to collaborate with the distinguished calligrapher Hon’ami Kōetsu (1558–1637). He produced horizontal scrolls with hand-stamped designs and painted backgrounds over which Kōetsu rendered texts of ancient poetry in his distinctive hand. Sōtatsu was a partner in the process and not merely the provider of materials. His use of hand-stamped images (kataoshi) and the pigments on them was highly innovative; he manipulated them in complicated ways that allowed a wide variety of expression from a single mold.

He and Kōetsu were sponsored by a wealthy merchant, Suminokura Soan (1571–1617), for whom they produced deluxe printed editions of classical literary texts and nō librettos; these were known as Saga-bon, a reference to Soan’s village, Saga. This partnership enabled artist and calligrapher to transition from the single manuscript to works printed in multiples without sacrificing elegance.