, also known as Kikuchi Takeyasu and Kawahara Ryōhei, was a
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
painter most famous for his monochrome portraits of historical figures.
Biography
The son of a
samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
named Kawahara of
Edo, he was adopted by a family named
Kikuchi. When eighteen, he became a pupil of
Takata Enjō; but, after studying the principles of the
Kanō,
Shijō, and Maruyama schools, perhaps, under Ozui, a son of
Ōkyo, he developed an independent style, having some affinities with that of
Tani Bunchō
was a Japanese literati (''bunjin'') painter and poet.
Biography
He was the son of the poet Tani Rokkoku (1729–1809). As his family were retainers of the Tayasu Family of descendants of the eighth Tokugawa ''shōgun'', Bunchō inherited ...
.
His illustrated history of Japanese heroes, the ''
Zenken Kojitsu'', is a remarkable specimen of his skill as a draughtsman in monochrome ink.
In order to produce this work, and his many other portraits of historical figures, he performed extensive historical, and even archaeological, research. ''Zenken Kojitsu'' features over 500 major figures in Japanese history, and was originally printed as a series of ten
woodblock printed books, in 1878.
Style
Nakane Kōtei
was a Japanese writer who lived during the late Edo Period and Meiji Era. Writing under the pen name of Kōtei, his given name was Kiyoshi (淑). He was the second son of Sone Nao (曾根 直), and his patrilineality root was the Kai-Genji clan ...
(中根 香亭) pointed out that Yōsai modelled the form of ''
Zenken Kojitsu'' (前賢故実) on ''Wanxiaotang Zhuzhuang Huachuan'' (晩笑堂竹荘画伝) which was drawn by the
Qing
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...
illustrator . Kōtei also said that Yōsai was influenced by
Hokusai
, known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. He is best known for the woodblock printing in Japan, woodblock print series ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'', which includes the ...
when young. He thought of the calligraphy as much as the picture when he guided a pupil.
Notes
References
*
* - facsimile of works.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kikuchi, Yosai
1781 births
1878 deaths
19th-century Japanese painters
Artists from Tokyo
Buddhist artists
Japanese portrait painters
People from Musashi Province
People of Edo-period Japan
People of Meiji-period Japan