Yashima Gakutei ( ja, 八島岳亭; 1868) was a Japanese artist and poet who was a pupil of both Totoya Hokkei and

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 ...

. Gakutei is best known for his

kyōka ''Kyōka'' (, "wild" or "mad poetry") is a popular, parodic subgenre of the tanka form of Japanese poetry with a metre of 5-7-5-7-7. The form flourished during the Edo period (17th–18th centuries) and reached its zenith during the Tenmei era ...

poetry and

surimono are a genre of Japanese woodblock print. They were privately commissioned for special occasions such as the New Year. Surimono literally means "printed thing". Being produced in small numbers for a mostly educated audience of ''literati'', ...

works.

Biography

Gakutei was born in

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. ...

around 1786, though his exact year of birth is somewhat unclear. He was the illegitimate son 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 ...

known as Hirata who served under the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

. Gakutei's mother later married into the Yashima clan, explaining the artist's name. For some time, he worked in Osaka, focusing chiefly on privately commissioned woodblock prints called

in addition to book illustrations. Most of what is known about Gakutei has been surmised from the subjects and context of his work.

Works

Gakutei is noted for the quality in his wood printing works and for his general contributions to the body of

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surfac ...

artwork. Specifically, critics have noted his technical prowess and precision, his skill in embossing, and that his specialization in

exceeded that of his teacher, Hokkei. Some of his work included a set of five woodblock prints featuring young women performing

gagaku is a type of Japanese classical music that was historically used for imperial court music and dances. was developed as court music of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and its near-current form was established in the Heian period (794-1185) around t ...

, a traditional kind of court music from 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. ...

. Each woman plays an instrument: a reed called a shō, a woodwind called a

ryūteki The is a Japanese transverse '' fue'' made of bamboo. It is used in gagaku, the Shinto classical music associated with Japan's imperial court. The sound of the ''ryūteki'' is said to represent the dragons which ascend the skies between the ...

, a

koto Koto may refer to: * Koto (band), an Italian synth pop group * Koto (instrument), a Japanese musical instrument * Koto (kana), a ligature of two Japanese katakana * Koto (traditional clothing), a traditional dress made by Afro-Surinamese women * K ...

, a stringed instrument called a

biwa The is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. The is a plucked string instrument that first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia, eventually reaching Japan sometime duri ...

, and a drum called a tsuri-daiko. Gakutei also illustrated an entire book called the related to the translated Chinese novel ''Suikoden''. Gakutei also created landscapes and seascapes for books, which are rare pieces amongst Hokusai's pupils. Gakutei is also known for his prolific writing; he wrote many humorous poems called ''

'' and used them in his artwork and prints. Additionally, he was responsible for a Japanese translation of ''

Journey to the West ''Journey to the West'' () is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is regarded as one of the greatest Classic Chinese Novels, and has been described as arguably the most popu ...

'', for which he also completed illustrations.

Gallery

File:Yashima Gakutei - A woman playing a large suspended drum (tsuridaiko) A set of five prints for the Hisakataya poetry c... - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Woman Playing a Large Suspended Drum'', a

woodblock print, circa 1827. File:Inkt de Chinese keizer Gensô Sumi - Gensô kôtei (titel op object) De vier kameraden van de schrijftafel van de Ichiyôren (serietitel) Ichiyôren bunbô shiyû (serietitel op object), RP-P-1958-398.jpg, '' Emperor Xuanzong Watches a Woman Emerge from the Ink''. Circa 1827. File:Yashima Gakutei - Untitled - Google Art Project.jpg, Scene from the ''

Kagerō Nikki is a work of classical Japanese literature, written around 974, that falls under the genre of '' nikki bungaku'', or diary literature. The author of ''Kagerō Nikki'' was a woman known only as the Mother of Michitsuna. Using a combination of wak ...

''. Woodblock print embossed on paper, circa 19th century. File:De onsterfelijke (sennin) Ôkyô-Rijksmuseum RP-P-1958-389.jpeg, ''Sennin Ōkyō''. Woodblock print, 1821-1822. File:MET DP143409.jpg, '' Carp and Pine''. Woodblock print produced on commission for a friends club in Kamige. File:Benkei crab and plum blossom (CBL J 2080).jpg, ''Benkei crab and plum blossom''. Woodblock print, c. 1823 File:Painting of Minamoto no Sanetomo by Yashima Gakutei, 1825.jpg, ''The shogun

Minamoto no Sanetomo was the third ''shōgun'' of the Kamakura shogunate. He was the second son of the Kamakura shogunate founder, Minamoto no Yoritomo. His mother was Hōjō Masako and his older brother was second Kamakura shogun Minamoto no Yoriie. His childhood n ...

''. Circa 1825. File:Osaka Tenmangu sairei no zu-The Tenmangu Festival at Osaka MET DP114889.jpg, ''The Tenmangū Festival at

''. 1834. File:Maansikkel met nieuwjaarsdecoratie-Rijksmuseum RP-P-1999-289.jpeg, ''Crescent Moon and New Years Decorations''. 1826. File:De krijger Homma Suketada, een voorbeeld uit de Kronieken van de Grote Vrede-Rijksmuseum RP-P-1958-447.jpeg, Honma Suketada from the ''

Taiheiki The (Chronicle of Great Peace) is a Japanese historical epic (see ''gunki monogatari'') written in the late 14th century and covers the period from 1319 to 1367. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Taiheiki''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', pp. 923� ...

''. 1821-1825. File:Painting, hanging scroll (BM 1913,0501,0.288 1).jpg, Painted scroll of a courtesan. 1818-1830. File:Daoist Immortal and a Crane LACMA M.80.219.55.jpg, ''Daoist Immortal and Crane''. File:Murasaki Shikibu composing the Tale of Genji at Ishiyamadera, by Yashima Gakutei.jpg,

Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court in the Heian period. She is best known as the author of '' The Tale of Genji,'' widely considered to be one of the world's first novels, written in Japanese between abou ...

composing '' The Tale of Genji''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yashima, Gakutei 1786 births 1868 deaths People from Osaka Ukiyo-e artists