Okada Beisanjin

Scholars under a pine tree

Okada Beisanjin ( Japanese 岡田 米 山人 , also Beiō ( 米 翁 ); born 1744 in Osaka ; died September 15, 1820 ) was a Japanese painter of the Nanga direction of the later Edo period .

life and work

Okada was originally a rice trader named Koku ( 國 / 国 ). Coming from this activity, he called himself Beisanjin as an artist, "Mensch vom Reisberg". He had studied Chinese literature and history and served the prince of the Tōdō clan , who ruled the city of Tsu , who had hired him in the 1790s as administrator of his warehouse for rice in Osaka.

He taught himself to paint completely by studying the Chinese painters of the Yuan and Ming periods , especially the literary painters such as Huang Gongwang (1269–1354) or Ni Zan . After his wife died in 1818, he devoted himself exclusively to painting.

In the second half of his life he developed into a painter whose style, which can be characterized by unusual compositions and little color. His pictures almost exclusively depict landscapes, and these are carefully thought out, even if they are only done as sketches. Beisanjin was friends with Uragami Gyokudō and Tanomura Chikuden , and his house was a meeting place for painters and scholars.

Beisanjin's son Hankō was also an excellent painter.

photos

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literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Ogata Beisanjin . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1135.
• Tazawa, Yutaka: Okada Beisanjin . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .
• Laurance P. Roberts: Beisanjin . In: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists. Weatherhill, 1976. ISBN 0-8348-0113-2 .

Web links

Commons : Okada Beisanjin  - 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 . So Okada is the family name, Beisanjin the first name.