Tomita Keisen (Japanese:冨田溪仙; 9 December 1879,

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

- 6 July 1936,

Kyōto 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 ...

) was a Japanese painter in the nihonga style.

Life and work

He was born to a family of restaurateurs who also made

sōmen , ''somyeon'' ( ko, 소면; 素麵), or ''sùmiàn'' () is a very thin noodle made of wheat flour, less than 1.3 mm in diameter. The noodles are used extensively in East Asian cuisines. Japanese ''sōmen'' is made by stretching the dough ...

. His artistic training began with Kinugasa Morimasa (1852-1912), the official painter for the Kuroda clan and a follower of the

Kanō school The is one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting. The Kanō school of painting was the dominant style of painting from the late 15th century until the Meiji period which began in 1868, by which time the school had divided into many di ...

. In 1896, he went to Kyōto to continue his education with Tsuji Kakō, who was a follower of the

Shijō school The , also known as the ''Maruyama–Shijō'' school, was a Japanese school of painting. History It was an offshoot school of the Maruyama school of Japanese painting founded by Maruyama Ōkyo, and his former student Matsumura Goshun in the ...

. During this period, he exhibited at the and several other venues. He was deeply interested in both Christianity and

Zen Buddhism Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

and travelled about, to China and Okinawa and, notably, to

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...

to study the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

Buddhist images. In 1915,

Yokoyama Taikan was the art-name of a major figure in pre-World War II Japanese painting. He is notable for helping create the Japanese painting technique of ''Nihonga''. Early life Yokoyama was born in Mito city, Ibaraki Prefecture, as the eldest son of S ...

invited him to participate in an exhibition held by the

Nihon Bijutsuin is a non-governmental artistic organization in Japan dedicated to ''Nihonga'' (Japanese style painting). The academy promotes the art of Nihonga through a biennial exhibition, the ''Inten'' Exhibition . History The Nihon Bijutsuin was founded b ...

, after which he was named an associate member of that organization. He always remained more devoted to the prevailing styles in Kyōto, however, and began to show some influence from the nanga style. He became progressively interested in landscapes and created ''Eight Views of

Saga is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square (video game company), Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, ...

''; a reference to a famous series of classical paintings which featured eight views of various locations. In 1923, through the mediation of novelist , he was introduced to the Ambassador from France, Paul Claudel, who was also a poet. Together, they produced some illustrated collections of poetry. In 1931, he paid a visit to Berlin to attend the "". Four years later, he was elected a member of the

Japan Art Academy is the highest-ranking official artistic organization in Japan. It is established as an extraordinary organ of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁, Bunkacho) in the thirty-first article of the law establishing the Ministry of Ed ...

Selected paintings

File:Tomita K Wind und Donner 2.jpg, Wind File:Tomita-Seasons.jpg, Fruits and Flowers of the Seasons File:Tomita K Wind und Donner 1.jpg, Thunder File:Tomita Keisen Ohara Herbst.jpg, Autumn in Ohara

Sources

* "Tomita Keisen", In: ''Kyōto no Nihonga 1910–1930''. National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 1986. . * Laurance P. Roberts: "Tomita Keisen". In: ''A Dictionary of Japanese Artists''. Weatherhill, 1976. .

External links

More works by Tomita
@ ArtNet {{Authority control 1879 births 1936 deaths Nihonga painters Buddhist artists Artists from Fukuoka Prefecture