Okada Hanko

Landscape with castle

Okada Hankō ( Japanese 岡田 半 江 ; born 1782 in Osaka ; died March 5, 1846 ) was a Japanese literary-style painter.

Live and act

Okada Hankō learned painting in the literary style from his father Okada Beisanjin and his painter friends, who were also guests of scholars and literary personalities. He often signed his early works, alluding to his father, in whose style they were kept, as "Shōbei" (小米), so as "Little Bei [sanjin]". Around 1809 he worked for the daimyo family Tōdō as an employee in the rice store of the Tōdō in Osaka, probably in a role that his father had earlier. After the death of his father in 1820, he took over the family business.

Around 1832 Okada gave up the post with the Tōdō and built a studio on the Yodogawa River near the Temma Bridge (天 満 橋). During a brief rebellion in 1837, instigated by his friend the Confucianist Ōshio Heihachirō, and which led to a fire in Osaka, the studio also burned down. Okada retired to Sumiyoshi south of Osaka. Where he probably spent most of the rest of his life.

After leaving Osaka, Okada painted little in the first few years. But then he created a number of literary-style paintings. In the period of full maturity, his style is characterized by soft colors, carefully executed and atmospheric. References to the pictures by Aoki Mokubei and Tanomura Chikuden can be seen .

Remarks

1. ↑ It's about Kishiwada Castle .
2. ↑ The uprising, led by Ōshio Heihachirō (大 塩 平 八郎; 1793-1837), took place on March 25, 1837. The reason was the third famine in a row without being alleviated by the Tokugawa shogunate . This led to the first internal Japanese fighting since the uprising of Shimabara (1637-1638). The uprising was put down and Ōshio took his own life.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Okada Hankō . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1135.

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