Kyosai 

Kawanabe Kyosai was one of the most fascinating, impressive and in a way, provocative, Japanese painters of 19th Century.

Trained “officially” in Tokugawa’s government painting school, he found immediately strong contrast between his innovative art and the rigid class system of that period.

But, because Tokugawa’s rigid power was at the end, Kyosai’s pioneerism art was able to develop and get the well known reputation.

Nowadays his art and his paintings have a big influence between manga creators and tattoo artists.

Important words and concepts:

• UKIYO-E (what’s ukiyo-e)

• Shogakai (calligraphy and painting party)

• sekiga (spontaneous paintings)

• kyoga (comic and satirical pictures)

Life of Kyosai

Chrono List:

1831  Kyosai born at Koga, in Shimosa Province, In 1831.

1832 The Family later moved to Edo (later Tokyo).

1838 Aged seven, entered the studio of artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi, where he studied the art of UKIYO-E (what’s ukiyo-e ????)

1840 He moved to the studio of Maemura Towa, a Kano school painter, a prestigious Kano school, which served Tokugawa Family and the samurai class.

1849 He completed his Kano training: he is now proficient in traditional Chinese and Japanese painting. By this period, he discovered a feeling for drinking sake, a habit that will continue in all his life.

1854 Japan opened Japan-US “treaty port”: this is the end of 200 years of restricted trade.

1855 He designed the first kyoga print, a comic and satirical picture. Kyoga was a popular art form but seen as low ranking.

1857 He got married and he became an independent painter. He started using the art name of kyosai.

1864 He worked with Utagawa Kunisada, one of the most popular ukiyo-e artists.

1868 The meji restoration took place in japan. It was the beginning of a rapid westernization in Japan. Kyosai used often symbolism to avoid censorship (I DON’T LIKE TO SAY MODERNISATION LINKE IN THE GUIDE ndr).

1870 After attending a shogakai, he was arrested  for an impromptu painting, probably satirizing the influence of foreigners on the meiji government.

1874 He worked with author and journalist Kanagaki Robun to create E-shimbun Nipponchi, a satirical comic magazine influenced by british cartoonist Charles Wirgman.

1881 Josiah Conder, a British architect teaching at the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo, became an important patron and friend of Kyosai.

-1889 Until his death in 1889 he received many visits from international artists and persons.

British Museum:

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG3494

Royal Academy of Art:

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/kyosai#articles

Tattoo Article

https://www.tattoolife.com/from-tradition-to-innovation-kawanabe-kyosai-at-the-royal-academy/