Minagawa Kien

Minagawa Kien (contemporary portrait)

Minagawa Kien ( Japanese 皆川 淇 園 , real name: Minagawa Gen (皆川 愿), other artist names: Donkaishi (呑 海子), Kyōsai (筇 斎), Sessai (節 斎), Yūhisai (有 斐 斎); born January 1 1735 in Kyoto ; died June 21, 1807 ) was a Japanese Confucianist and painter of the Nanga school during the middle Edo period .

life and work

Minagawa Kien was the son of a famous scholar of Chinese literature and philosophy. He, also a scholar, could have got a good job with one of the princes, but instead he opened a private school, which he called Kōdōkan (弘道 館). The school had a good reputation and grew and grew so that it was attended by more than 3000 students. Not only was Kien a good scientist at the Confucian classics, but he was equally good at painting, poetry, and music.

Kien had studied painting under Mochizuki Gyokusen (1673 / 93–1755), later he is said to have trained under Tani Bunchō . After studying ancient Chinese painting, he finally turned to painting in the Nanga style. From 1792 Kien showed his new paintings in the spring and autumn in the Higashiyama district of Kyoto. He knew numerous artists of his time and wrote about them. The collection of these writings, the Kien Bunshū (淇 園 文集), is of great value to today's art scholars.

photos

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  Letter to Komai Gensaku

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  calligraphy

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  Book illustrations

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  Book illustrations

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  landscape

Remarks

1. ↑ Minagawa used the same stage name as the early nanga painter, Yanagisawa Kien .

literature

• Tazawa, Yutaka: Minagawa Kien . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .
• Laurance P. Roberts: Kien . In: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists. Weatherhill, 1976. ISBN 0-8348-0113-2 .

Web links

Commons : Minagawa Kien  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Minagawa is the family name, Kien the first name.