Yosai - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

YOSAI [Kikuchi] (1781-1878), Japanese painter, was the son of a samurai named Kawara, of Yedo. He was adopted by the Kikuchi family, who were old hereditary retainers of the Tokugawa clan. When eighteen, he became a pupil of Takata Enjo; but, after studying the principles of the Kano, Shijo, and Maruyama schools - in the latter, perhaps, under Ozui, a son of Okyo - he developed an independent style, having some affinities with that of Tani Buncho. He was one of the last of the great painters of Japan; and his illustrated history of Japanese heroes, the Zenken Kojitsu, is a remarkable specimen of his power as a draughtsman in black and white.