Sotan (宗湛)

Sotan (1413 - 1481) was an artist-monk in the middle of the Muromachi period. His name was also written 宗丹 (Sotan). His secular surname was Oguri.

He studied India-ink painting with Shubun, an artist-monk of Shokoku-ji Temple. In 1462, he won the recognition of the 8th shogun, Yoshimasa ASHIKAGA, after painting the fusuma-e (images drawn or painted on fusuma) of Shosen-ken in Kyoto Shokoku-ji Temple and in the following year, in 1463, he became the official painter of the shogun family as the successor of Shubun. Thereafter, he painted the fusuma-e of Takakura Gosho, Untaku-ken and Ishiyama-dera Temple as an authority on Chinese style painting in the capital. Although records of the fact that he was engaged in painting around 1473 are existent, no paintings by Sotan have been discovered so far except for the fusuma-e of Yotokuin in Daitoku-ji Temple which Sokei, his son, completed based on what Sotan left unfinished.

[Original Japanese]