Many artists and poets have striven to capture the transitory image of swelling waves. Ogata Kōrin’s rendition has a strangely menacing feel, no doubt due to the long tentacles of foam punctured here and there by openings. Outlined in ink using the ancient Chinese technique of drawing with two brushes held in one hand, the immediate inspiration for the clawlike waves on this screen may have been an image by the Muromachi-period artist Sesson Shūkei (ca. 1504–ca. 1589). The screen bears a seal reading “Dōsū,” the name Kōrin adopted in 1704.
