Life of Saigyō

The three scenes illustrated here mark important moments in the monk-poet’s mythologized life. The first, from scroll 2, depicts the emotional reunion of Saigyō and his daughter, many years after he’d left his family to become a monk. He urges his daughter, now a beautiful woman, to follow in his footsteps and take Buddhist vows. The second scene, from scroll 3, is an expansive view that spans three sheets; Saigyō visits the famous Nachi Falls at Kumano (present-day Wakayama Prefecture). After hearing legendary tales about Kumano from a local priest, he dons a pilgrim’s white robes and goes to the waterfall, where he sits in prayer and admiration. The third scene, also from scroll 3, depicts Saigyō’s encounter with an old monk on the Musashino Plain in eastern Japan. Here, the depiction of deer and autumn grasses showcases the artist’s unique ability to combine picture and pattern. In all three scenes, Sōtatsu employed relaxed, lightly inked brushstrokes and the pooled-ink technique called tarashikomi, providing a contemporary sensibility quite distinct from the work’s medieval prototypes.