National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

While this subject has several Chinese precedents in Sung and Yuan colored paintings, the artist Tawaraya Sōtatsu painted the two grebes and two lotus flowers using only monochrome ink, giving the painting a clean, simple feeling. Nevertheless, the artist exquisitely expresses the contrast between the blooming white lotus blossoms and the ripening lotus seed pods. Contrast is also created between the two birds, one of which swims ahead with a half-open, upturned bill, as if in search of new bait, while the other quietly floats on.
Though this painting bears no signature, only a red "Inen" seal in the lower-left corner, it represents the technical perfection of Sōtatsu's ink painting.