Who was this person?
A Japanese-style painter of the Meiji to early Shōwa eras and a central figure of the prewar Kyoto art world. Born at a Kyoto restaurant, he studied under Kōno Bairei. Bringing what he learned from Western painting in Europe into nihonga, he opened up a new way of depicting animals vividly. Known for works such as Tabby Cat, he received the first Order of Culture.
| Name | Takeuchi Seihō (竹内栖鳳) |
|---|---|
| Born–died | 1864 – 1942 |
| Period | Meiji–Shōwa |
| Birthplace | Kyoto |
| Main achievements |
|
He was born the eldest son of the Kamemasa restaurant at Oike-Aburanokōji in Kyoto. His real name was Tsunekichi. As a small boy he is said to have watched a yūzen dye painter, a regular customer, paint irises in ink on a poem card and been utterly captivated. This was his first step on the path of painting.
He lost his mother this year. His father wanted him to take over the family business, but unable to suppress his love of painting, he began studying around this time under Tsuchida Eirin, a painter of the Shijō school who lived nearby. His sister Koto, ten years older, later kept the restaurant going while supporting her brother's career.
He entered the studio of Kōno Bairei of the Maruyama-Shijō school and was given the art name Seihō, written with a character linked to his surname Takeuchi, meaning bamboo, because the phoenix was said to eat bamboo seeds. Within six months he was promoted over senior pupils, and he was later counted among Bairei's four leading disciples.
Having completed his studies at the Kyoto Prefectural School of Painting, he married and set up as an independent painter. He earned a living drawing kimono designs for the Takashimaya design department while honing his skills. Following Bairei's teaching that a sketchbook is to a painter what a sword is to a samurai, he sketched animals in great detail.
A painting of a cat he exhibited won a prize, but his style, which drew on the methods of many schools, was likened to a chimera with a monkey's head and a raccoon dog's body and mocked as the Nue school. Undaunted, he continued to exhibit and win prizes in search of new expression.
When Bairei died, Seihō succeeded him as a teacher at the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts, where Yokoyama Taikan was also teaching at the time. Bairei's pupil Uemura Shōen joined Seihō, and his studio, later called the Chikujōkai, drew many painters.
He travelled to Europe to visit the Paris World Exposition, where a painting of sparrows he had sent won a silver medal. Touring London, Rome and other cities, he saw works by Turner and Corot first-hand and was strongly influenced. He began to seek ways to bring Western realism into Japanese painting.
After returning he exhibited Lions, painting the animals he had seen in Europe, and won a first-class gold medal. From this time he changed the first character of his art name to a new form of Seihō. With works drawing on what he had learned in the West, he attracted attention as a standard-bearer of new Japanese painting.
When the state-run Bunten exhibition began he was chosen as a judge and served for more than ten years. Two years later he became a teacher at the Kyoto Municipal Special School of Painting, training young painters such as Tsuchida Bakusen, Ono Chikkyō and Murakami Kagaku, who would later lead Kyoto Nihonga.
He was chosen as an Imperial Household Artist, an honour for outstanding artists, becoming in name and fact the leading figure of the Kyoto art world. That year he exhibited at the Bunten exhibition a work capturing the moment a model feels shy before posing, later designated an Important Cultural Property.
He presented Tabby Cat, showing a mottled cat turning its head while grooming itself. It is said that he took a liking to a cat he saw while travelling, obtained it and sketched it. With a depiction that makes one feel every hair, it is a masterpiece later designated an Important Cultural Property.
He was among the first recipients of the newly created Order of Culture. Alongside Yokoyama Taikan he was spoken of as Seihō of the west and Taikan of the east. After his health declined he worked mainly in Yugawara, reaching a style that captured forms with very few brushstrokes.
He died of pneumonia at the inn in Yugawara where he had rested and worked. Many painters trained under him, beginning with Uemura Shōen, sustained the modern Kyoto art world. His power of drawing from life, said to capture even the smell of animals, still fascinates many people today.
A. A Japanese-style painter of the Meiji to early Shōwa eras and a central figure of the prewar Kyoto art world. Born at a Kyoto restaurant, he studied under Kōno Bairei. Bringing what he learned from Western painting in Europe into nihonga, he opened up a new way of depicting animals vividly. Known for works such as Tabby Cat, he received the first Order of Culture.
A. Period: Meiji–Shōwa. Born in 1864, died in 1942.
A. Takeuchi Seihō was born in Kyoto.
A. Painted in 1924, it shows a cat turning its head as it grooms itself. It is said that Seihō was taken with a cat he saw in Numazu, Shizuoka, got the owner to give it to him, took it back to Kyoto and painted it after close observation. His masterpiece, rendering even the softness of the fur and the green eyes in fine detail, it is an Important Cultural Property.
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Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.