Kumashiro Yūhi (熊代熊斐; 17121772 or 1773) was a Japanese painter of the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. A member of the

Nanpin school The Nanpin school (南蘋派 ''Nanpin-ha'') was a school of painting which flourished in Nagasaki during the Edo period. Etymology The school takes its name from Nanpin, the art name of Chinese painter Shen Quan (1682–1760), an artist who pa ...

, he worked in

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

, where he studied art under the Chinese painter

Shen Quan Shen Quan (; c. 1682–1760) was a Chinese painter during the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). His courtesy name was Nanpin (南蘋) and his sobriquet was Hengzhai (衡斎). His works became influential in Japanese Edo period art. Biography Shen ...

(1682–1760).

Names

Yūhi's birth name was Kumashiro Ayaru (神代斐). His common name was Hikonoshin (彦之進), and later, Jinzaemon (甚左衛門). His

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...

was Kisen (淇瞻), and his

art name An art name (pseudonym or pen name), also known by its native names ''hào'' (in Mandarin), ''gō'' (in Japanese), ''ho'' (in Korean), and ''tên hiệu'' (in Vietnamese), is a professional name used by East Asian artists, poets and writers. The ...

was Shūkō (繡江). Today, he is usually called Yūhi (熊斐), his Chinese-style sobriquet, which were popular among Japanese artists who studied Chinese arts and poetry during the Edo period.

Biography

Yūhi was born to the Kumashiro (神代) family, a family that supplied the government with ''tōtsūji'', or Japanese-Chinese interpreters. His father was one such translator. At age 21, Yūhi became an apprentice translator, but never advanced beyond that. In 1731, he became the pupil of

(沈銓), a visiting Chinese painter who stayed in

until 1733. Later, he continued studying under Gao Qian (高乾), another disciple of Shen Quan. During this time, the

of art was established in Japan, largely based on earlier styles of the Ming and Qing dynasties, which focused mainly on

bird-and-flower painting Bird-and-flower painting, called () in Chinese, is a kind of Chinese painting with a long tradition in China and is considered one of the treasures of Chinese culture. The was named after its subject matter. It originated in the Tang dynasty wh ...

(''kachōga''). The school was named after Nanpin, which was Shen Quan's

, and Yūhi was considered one of the school's most passionate members. In one instance, when Yūhi was asked to paint a

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus '' Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on u ...

, he approached a caged tiger brought by a foreigner, and struck it on the head with a

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

pole to see it move. It roared, scaring off the other bystanders, but he continued to sketch the tiger, refusing to leave. Yūhi's art was esteemed by the Japanese public, who regarded his paintings as a worthy native substitute for Chinese works, which were hard to find in Japan. Later, he went on to teach other artists, such as

Sō Shiseki was a Japanese painter of the Nagasaki and Nanpin schools. Originally from Edo, he spent some time in Nagasaki, where he studied under the Chinese painter Song Ziyan, who was known as Sō Shigan in Japanese. The name Sō Shiseki is an art-name, ...

, Mori Ransai (森蘭斎) and Kakutei (鶴亭). His students would then spread this "Nagasaki style" of art to major cities like

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 ...

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

and

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

Gallery

Kumashiro Yuuhi, Xi Wangmu's Peaches of Immortality.jpg, ''

Xiwangmu The Queen Mother of the West, known by various local names, is a mother goddess in Chinese religion and mythology, also worshipped in neighbouring Asian countries, and attested from ancient times. From her name alone some of her most importan ...

Peaches of Immortality In Chinese mythology, Peaches of Immortality ( or ) are consumed by the immortals due to their mystic virtue of conferring longevity on all who eat them. Peaches symbolizing immortality (or the wish for a long and healthy life) are a common symbo ...

'' Kumashiro Yuuhi, Two Cranes at a Clear Stream, 1754.jpg, ''Two Cranes at a Clear Stream'', 1754 Carp Leaping the Dragon Gate by Kumashiro Yuhi (Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture).jpg, ''Carp Leaping the Dragon Gate'' Yūhi A pair of Cranes.jpg, ''Two Immortal Cranes of Longevity''

Notes

References

External links