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 was a kingdom in the Ryukyu Islands from 1429 to 1879. It was ruled as a Tributary system of China, tributary state of Ming dynasty, imperial Ming China by the King of Ryukyu, Ryukyuan monarchy, who unified Okinawa Island t ...

. 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 Shuri may refer to: People *, ring name of Syuri Kondo, a Japanese professional wrestler, shoot boxer and kickboxer *, Japanese footballer *, Japanese professional wrestler Characters * Shuri (character), a Marvel Comics superhero ** Shuri (Marv ...

. 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 audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

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 , meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western styles of art which b ...

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. Life Shō Hō was the fourth son ...

called him to his court, and bestowed upon him the name Ji Ryō. It is said that the

Chinese investiture envoys Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

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 h ...

, court painter for the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

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

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

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 Island, Okinawa by United States Army and United States Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army during the Pacific War, Impe ...

. 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, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal ( ...

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

Okinawa Prefectural Museum The , or Okimu for short, 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 ...

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

bai ze Bai Ze () is a mythical creature from ancient Chinese legends. During the Tang Dynasty, it was introduced to Japan with its name unchanged. In the Book of Song () in China, there is a record related to Bai Ze called the Bái Zé Tú ‘diagram of ...

'' in Chinese and ''

hakutaku Bai Ze () is a mythical creature from ancient Chinese legends. During the Tang Dynasty, it was introduced to Japan with its name unchanged. In the Book of Song () in China, there is a record related to Bai Ze called the Bái Zé Tú ‘diagram of ...

'' 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 Painters People from the Ryukyu Kingdom Court painters Deaf royalty and nobility