Gusukuma Portrait of the Sacred Beast Baize

was an official

court painter A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...

at the royal court of the

Ryūkyū Kingdom The Ryukyu Kingdom, Middle Chinese: , , Classical Chinese: (), Historical English language, English names: ''Lew Chew'', ''Lewchew'', ''Luchu'', and ''Loochoo'', Historical French name: ''Liou-tchou'', Historical Dutch name: ''Lioe-kioe'' wa ...

. He was also known as Ji Ryō (自了) and by the Chinese-style name Qin Kesheng (欽可聖, J: Kin Kasei).Gusukuma Seihô
" Kotobank.jp. Accessed 6 October 2009.

Life

Gusukuma was born to an aristocratic family in Shuri. His father was a musician, but Gusukuma was born

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an Audiology, audiological condition. In this context it ...

Hakutaku no zu
." Arts of Okinawa. Okinawa Prefectural Government. 2003. Accessed 6 October 2009. and he focused his energies in a different direction, teaching himself to paint."Ji Ryô." ''Okinawa rekishi jinmei jiten'' (沖縄歴史人名事典, "Encyclopedia of People of Okinawan History"). Naha: Okinawa Bunka-sha, 1996. p 44. He sought out

Chinese painting Chinese painting () is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as ''guó huà'' (), meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western style ...

s, and was heavily influenced by them. Hearing of the young painter, King

Shō Hō was a king of the Ryukyu Kingdom. He succeeded Shō Nei, whose reign saw the invasion of Ryukyu by Japanese forces in 1609 and the subjugation of the kingdom to Satsuma Domain, and ruled from 1621 until 1640. Shō Hō was the fourth son of Shō ...

called him to his court, and bestowed upon him the name Ji Ryō. It is said that the Chinese investiture envoys who witnessed his painting compared him to some of the top painters in China, and that

Kanō Yasunobu Kanō Yasunobu (, 10 January 1614 – 1 October 1685) was a Japanese painter of the Kanō school of painting during the Edo period. He was the third son of Kanō Takanobu, who had been head of the school, and succeeded Kanō Sadanobu as ...

, court painter for the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

, similarly praised the artist when one of Gusukuma's works was brought to

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

by the 1634 Ryukyuan envoy.

Works

Most of Gusukuma's works were destroyed in the 1945

battle of Okinawa The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army (USA) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) forces against the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The initial invasion of ...

. There is only one extant work which bears a

Seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impr ...

(''rakan'') confirming it to have been painted by Gusukuma. It is held by the

Okinawa Prefectural Museum The is a museum in the most southern prefecture of Japan. The museum complex in the Omoro-machi area of Naha, the capital city of Okinawa Prefecture. It opened in November 2007, and includes art, history, and natural history museums focusing spe ...

, has been designated an Okinawa Prefectural Important Cultural Property, and depicts a fantastic creature known as ''

bai ze Bái Zé (), or in Japanese language, Japanese is a mythical cow-like beast from Chinese legend. Its name literally means "white marsh". The ''Bái Zé'' was encountered by the Yellow Emperor or ''Huáng Dì'' while he was on patrol in the east. ...

'' in Chinese and '' hakutaku'' in Japanese.

References

*
Ji Ryô
" ''Okinawa konpakuto jiten'' (沖縄コンパクト事典, "Okinawa Compact Dictionary"). ''Ryukyu Shimpo''. 1 March 2003. Accessed 6 October 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Seiho, Gusukuma 1614 births 1644 deaths Deaf artists Japanese painters People from Okinawa Island Court painters Deaf royalty and nobility Japanese deaf people