Abstract
There are three folding screens of the "Wind and Thunder Gods" created by three Rimpa school masters: Sotatsu Tawaraya, Korin Ogata (1658-1716) and Hoitsu Sakai (1761-1828). In the exhibition 'The National Treasure Screens of the Art of Rimpa' at the Idemitsu Museum in 2004, it was proven that the outlines of Sotatsu's and Korin's versions of the folding screen are almost the same. This gives an impression that Korin traced Sotatsu's work. However, by comparing both screens, I found out that Korin's work differs from Sotatsu's at several points. In this paper, I will present other possibilities of copying outlines other than by tracing, and I will examine how Korin created his work by comparing the details of both folding screens. Lastly, I will present a new way of looking at Korin's work, in that he did not merely trace Sotatsu's work. Instead, he may have used a preparatory drawing or a tracing outline prepared by another person, among other reasons to produce his own interpretation of the "Wind and Thunder Gods" folding screen.
