, 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 The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

named Kawahara of

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 ...

, 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. His illustrated history of Japanese heroes, the ''

Zenken Kojitsu The is a collection of biographies of Japanese historical figures by Kikuchi Yōsai, first published from the late Edo period into the Meiji period. It consists of ten volumes and twenty books in total. Moving through time from Classical antiqui ...

'', 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 (中根香亭) pointed out that Yōsai modelled the form of ''

'' (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 Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

illustrator . Kōtei also said that Yōsai was influenced by

Hokusai , known mononymously as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. His woodblock printing in Japan, woodblock print series ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'' includes the iconic print ''The Gr ...

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 1788 births 1878 deaths 19th-century Japanese painters Painters from Tokyo Buddhist artists Japanese portrait painters People from Musashi Province People of the Edo period People of the Meiji era