Tomioka Tessai

Tomioka Tessai (Japanese富 冈 鉄 斎) or Tomioka Tomioka Yusuke and Hyakuren ( born January 25, 1836 in Kyoto, † December 31, 1924 ) was a Japanese painter and calligrapher. He was regarded as the last great master of Bunjinga tradition and one of the first artists of the Nihonga style.

Work and life

Tessai was born as the second son of the sacred robes dealer Tomioka Korenobu. At the request of his parents, he was not like his father dealer, but first official, the various Shinto shrines in Kyoto, Yamata and Izumi were entrusted. Another area of ​​interest Tessais was the philosophy. In particular, the writings of Confucius and the Buddhist monk Otagaki Rengetsuni were important to him. For a while Tessai campaigned for the reinstatement of the emperor as supreme authority, and as a result was forced to flee for his political aspirations in 1859 to Nagasaki. In the monasteries of Isonokami Otori and he lived for a time as Shinto monk. In 1881 he resigned from the monastery and devoted himself from then on only his painting. In 1882 he returned to his home and received a teaching post at the municipal art school. In 1917 he received the award as court painter, and in 1919 the membership at the Imperial Academy of Arts.

Tessai was studying from his early childhood to classical Japanese literature and Chinese Studies. He has learned his art in any masters of painting, but has developed a self-taught themselves. However, he was influenced in his work by the style of ancient Chinese and Japanese masters. His interest in calligraphy has helped him to gain a unique brush style. He was one of the few painters of the era of the Meiji Restoration, which is not from the West has to be influenced.