Hibiscus Flowers and Wild Pinks

This painting depicts two seasonal flowers in an abstract and yet naturalistic composition; upright floral silhouettes rise gracefully from shadowy or imperceptible roots in a strikingly decorative design devoid of any visible ground plane. Individual plant forms are defined using a technique known as tarashikomi, in which black ink and/or mineral pigments have been splashed onto areas of still-moist ink wash, resulting in evocative pools of saturation. The evolution of such seemingly effortless and yet technically difficult decorative imagery also found expression in many other media during the Edo period (1615-1868), so that divisions between the various arts--such as painting, lacquerware, and metalwork--began to blur. Tarashikomi is one of the hallmarks of so-called Rimpa-style paintings--works done in emulation of Tawaraya Sōtatsu (died c. 1643), who is credited with having consciously evoked and updated the rich, allusive imagery of Japan's Heian-period (794-1185) past. The artist to whom this painting is attributed, Kitagawa Sōsetsu, appears to have been an accomplished and faithful mid-seventeenth-century follower in the direct line of Sōtatsu; however, many questions remain regarding Sōsetsu's identity and oeuvre. This work is likely one of a set of paintings depicting either the Flowers of the Twelve Months or the Flowers of the Four Seasons.