was a Japanese

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, scholar and statesman member of the

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 ...

class.

Biography

He was born Watanabe Sadayasu in

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 ...

(now

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

) to a poor

family, and his artistic talent was developed from an early age. His family served the

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ar ...

of the

Tahara Domain was a minor '' fudai'' Japanese domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in southern Mikawa Province (modern-day southeastern Aichi Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Tahara Castle in what is now the city of Tahara. ...

, located in present-day Aichi prefecture. Watanabe himself served the lord of Tahara as a senior councilor, one of his achievements being said to be protecting the domain from even a single death from starvation during the

Tenpō famine The Tenpō famine (天保の飢饉, ''Tenpō no kikin''), also known as the Great Tenpō famine (天保の大飢饉, ''Tenpō no daikikin'') was a famine that affected Japan during the Edo period. Considered to have lasted from 1833 to 1837, it wa ...

. He was heavily influenced by the artistic styles of the West, forming a unique style with elements of Japanese and European art. Like many other Edo-period artists, Kazan painted realistic portraits of his subjects using the effects of shading which he learned from European paintings. On the one hand, he was a traditionalist Confucian, who believed in filial piety and loyalty to his ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

'', and on the other he was enthusiastic about Western ideas regarding science and politics. He wrote two private essays which were interpreted as being critical of the Shogunate's defense of

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous a ...

and promoting Western ideas. Although these papers were discarded by Watanabe, they were found and he was tried and exiled to his home province of Tahara. One of the conditions of his exile was that he wouldn't sell his paintings, however Watanabe continued selling his paintings in secret due to financial hardships. This was eventually discovered leading to the suppression of his works and

house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...

. Due to the political turmoil involved in this, Watanabe committed

ritual suicide A suicide method is any means by which a person chooses to end their life. Suicide attempts do not always result in death, and a nonfatal suicide attempt can leave the person with serious physical injuries, long-term health problems, and brai ...

(

seppuku , sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people ...

) as a way to amend for the embarrassment he caused his lord.

Works

File:Watanabe Kazan - Portrait of Sato Issai (age 50) - Google Art Project.jpg, Portrait of

Satō Issai was a '' Confucian scholar in late Edo to Bakumatsu period Japan. Biography Satō was the second son of Satō Nobuyoshi, a samurai in the service of Iwamura Domain, a minor (20,000 ''koku'') domain with holdings in Mino and Suruga Provinces. He ...

, 1821 File:MET DP257174.jpg, Hanging scroll, 1820

References

Watanabe Kazan
at Artcyclopedia.com *

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watanabe, Kazan 1793 births 1841 deaths Artists who committed suicide Karō Suicides by seppuku Japanese portrait painters 1840s suicides Artists from Tokyo Metropolis