His technique relied on the tarashikomi method. He dropped wet pigments or black ink into other wet colours to create soft, bleeding edges. Sōtatsu avoided the straight, rigid lines common in the Kanō school of the time. Instead, he preferred curved forms and bold silhouettes. He often placed paper cutouts of fans directly onto gold leaf backgrounds. His work focused on the simplification of natural forms and classical literary themes.

Modern collectors value the graphic clarity of his designs. His use of negative space and flat colour blocks mirrors contemporary minimalist aesthetics. The compositions are balanced but asymmetrical. These qualities allow his seventeenth-century work to fit within modern interior spaces. His prints offer a sense of calm through their soft ink transitions and gold tones.