When we think of the history of Japan, most of us picture the era of samurai and shoguns, long before the country was open to the West. This era is known as the Edo Period and is considered to be an important age of economic and artistic growth in the nation's history.

The Edo Period lasted from 1603 to 1867, when the country isolated itself from foreign contact and lived under the rule of a military government known as the Tokugawa shogunate. The name of the time comes from the capital Edo, which today exists as the capital city of Tokyo. After a period of warring states and feuding lords, Japanese society became rigid and orderly under the rule of the shoguns, very similar to the model of feudalism in medieval Europe. Laws defined what was appropriate in public society and all real power rested in the hands of territorial lords known as daimyo, whose chief enforcers and servants were known as samurai. As the population in Japan grew, so too did cities and villages, creating a solid economic foundation. The Edo Period came to a close when Commodore Matthew Perry led an American expedition to open relations between Japan and the Western world.

Thanks to trade relations with the Chinese and the Dutch, the Japanese were able to borrow from new sources of science and art despite the official policy of isolation. The Edo Period saw the rise of kabuki theatre, tea ceremonies, and geisha entertainers, as well as new forms of poetry and literature. Painting changed through the development of the Rinpa school of art, which focused on creating refined scenes from nature and legends using silver or gold leaf backgrounds, which added a three-dimensional quality to the scene. These works of art were mostly used for decoration, particularly for fans, hanging scrolls, and folding screens.

Tawaraya Sotatsu is considered to be one of the two founders of the Rinpa school of painting (alongside Honami Koetsu) and one of the finest artists of the Edo Period in general. He started as a fan-painter in Kyoto in the early 1600s, but achieved real success when he became a painter for the Emperor's court, specializing in stunning calligraphy and ornamentation. Some of his most famous works include a pair of screens entitled Wind God and Thunder God,and a series of folding screens depicting episodes of The Tale of Genji, a classic Japanese novel of the eleventh century.

Sotatsu is best-known for his creative technique, known as tarashikomi. The technique involves applying a second layer of paint while the first layer is still drying, creating a "dripping" effect and allowing for more details like ripples in a flowing river or flower petals on a tree. The tarashikomi style became popular though the spread of the Rinpa school of artists, bringing new life to common household objects.

Because of the cultural heritage of the Edo Period, many works by Sotatsu and the Rinpa school are part of a massive collection known as the National Treasures of Japan. Although such paintings are spread and housed across the country, the majority of such works can be found in the cities of Kyoto, Tokyo, and Nara.

Image by Mr Hicks46 on Flickr