Watanabe Kazan
Japanese painter, scholar and statesman (1793–1841)
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Japanese. (September 2015) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
- View a machine-translated version of the Japanese article.
- Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
- Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
- You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is
Content in this edit is translated from the existing Japanese Wikipedia article at [[:ja:渡辺崋山]]; see its history for attribution. - You may also add the template
{{Translated|ja|渡辺崋山}}to the talk page. - For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.
- Painter
- scholar
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Romanization | Watanabe Kazan |
Watanabe Kazan (渡辺 崋山, October 20, 1793 – November 23, 1841) was a Japanese painter, scholar and statesman member of the samurai class.
Biography
He was born Watanabe Sadayasu in Edo (now Tokyo) to a poor samurai family, and his artistic talent was developed from an early age. His family served the lord of the Tahara Domain, located in present-day Aichi prefecture. Watanabe himself served the lord of Tahara as a senior councilor, one of his achievements being said to be protecting the domain from even a single death from starvation during the Tenpō famine. He was heavily influenced by the artistic styles of the West, forming a unique style with elements of Japanese and European art.
Like many other Edo-period artists, Kazan painted realistic portraits of his subjects using the effects of shading which he learned from European paintings. On the one hand, he was a traditionalist Confucian, who believed in filial piety and loyalty to his daimyō, and on the other he was enthusiastic about Western ideas regarding science and politics. He wrote two private essays which were interpreted as being critical of the Shogunate's defense of Tokyo Bay and promoting Western ideas. Although these papers were discarded by Watanabe, they were found and he was tried and exiled to his home province of Tahara. One of the conditions of his exile was that he wouldn't sell his paintings, however Watanabe continued selling his paintings in secret due to financial hardships. This was eventually discovered leading to the suppression of his works and house arrest.
Due to the political turmoil involved in this, Watanabe committed ritual suicide (seppuku) as a way to amend for the embarrassment he caused his lord.
Works
-
Portrait of Satō Issai, 1821 -
Hanging scroll, 1820
References
- Watanabe Kazan at Artcyclopedia.com
- Keene, Donald (2006). Frog In The Well: Portraits of Japan by Watanabe Kazan 1793–1841 (Asia Perspectives). Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231138261.
External links
Media related to Watanabe Kazan at Wikimedia Commons
Authority control databases  | |
|---|---|
| International |
|
| National |
|
| Academics |
|
| Artists |
|
| Other |
|
