![]() The waves under examination seem to come out of the darken ocean, this being rendered by a deep blue halo with indefinite contours. Their restless linearism, in conjunction to the anthropomorphic-like claws, anticipated Hokusai and then it would be a source of inspiration for him. Light and shadow effects are also visible in Rough Waves by Ogata Kōrin, where the waves look like they are about to collide from opposite directions ( yinyang in’yō in Japanese). Tawaraya Sōtatsu, Waves at Matsushima, left screen of a pair of six panel screens, XVII century, Freer Gallery of Art, The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art Tawaraya Sōtatsu, Waves at Matsushima, right screen of a pair of six panel screens, XVII century, Freer Gallery of Art, The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art ![]() ![]() In the screen on the right, on the other hand, the perspective is twofold: to the panoramic view of the sea and the pines it joins a frontal vision from the bottom of the rocks. The point of view is more distinctly from above in the left screen, where it appears to be that of a bird perched on the branch of the pine tree in the foreground. The unrealistic azure adopted for the shadows of the rocky cavities can be explained by having recourse to a careful study of light effects dating back to several centuries before Impressionism. The splashy ocean still manages to turn into golden nuances that bring out both the gofun (a mineral pigment) adopted to depict the bright white of the foam, and the vivid green, ochre and light blue of the rocks and pine trees, which are also rendered with blurred spots, as the Rinpa school requires. The gold-leaf-coated sky and the sea backdrops are represented according to an abstract style and are not distinguishable, but in reciprocal trespassing. The line does not have the function of marking the contours, but only of creating very delicate calligraphic effects as curvilinear waves with fringing crests and pine needles intermingled in the vegetation: there is a palpable tension between indefiniteness and care of the details. In that artwork, the tarashikomi technique, essentially based on blurring the contours, has been adopted for the whitish clouding of the stormy sea to be optimally rendered, even with a view to the Buddhist idea of impermanence applied to everything, given that it continuously dissolves as seafoam. One of the most popular representations of the present subject-matter is that entitled Waves at Matsushima by Tawaraya Sōtatsu, cofounder of the Rinpa school. Waves are a recurring motif in the figurative art, and one proof thereof is the existence of a sketching handbook ( Hamonshū, Yūzan Mori, 1903) reporting all sorts of wave models, including slow and lazy undulations gently lapping the shoreline, a symbol of resilience, as well as rushing, roaring and foaming whitecaps, thus emblem of lifeforce. The schematic view of concentric waves ( seigaiha) becomes a symbol of surging good luck, besides being a widely adopted pattern of fabrics, pottery and lacquers. ![]() Last, their repeating undertow symbolises the passing of time. The waves may individually represent the feminine ( yin) or masculine ( yang) principle, depending on their verse, and, together, they recall the unity of the universe with its creative power. There are no perfect, steady and complete waves and yet, by the same token, everything in nature is imperfect, incomplete and unsteady: the beauty of the universe consists of being everlastingly in the becoming. However, waves derive and are inseparable from, actually return without a trace to, the sea that therefore, while constantly changing, always remains the same.Īs the waves are part of a unitary whole that is the sea, so every element of nature is part of the universe, from it derives and returns to it. Waves are evocative of vacuum, in the sense of potentiality and novelty-generating energy, rather than of negativeness and nihilism: in fact, the sea continuously produces new waves. In line with the East religions, waves are representative of perpetual moving, transformation, dynamism – albeit in the unity and permanence of the constituent element that is water -, hence, of the relentless dualism between being and becoming. ![]()
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