Okuhara Seiko (1837-1913)

[nnozomi]

Okuhara Seiko was born in 1837 in Ibaraki, originally under the name of Ikeda Setsuko. Having avoided legal restrictions on women leaving the domain of her birth through adoption by an aunt in a neighboring region, she received a classical education. In 1865 she moved to Edo—shortly to become Tokyo—where she spent most of her working life, becoming a well-known painter in the bunjinga or “Literati” style (a classical Chinese ideal of the “amateur” scholar-artist whose paintings expressed their personal cultivation).
Her artwork included ink paintings, calligraphy, and full-color paintings. She was known for her masculine dress and hairstyle, as well as her adoption of the name Seiko (pronounced like a typically female name, but spelled with the gender-neutral 湖 rather than the feminine 子). Much of her life was shared with her (likewise female) disciple Watanabe Seiran.
With a gregarious personality, physical prowess, and unhesitating practices as well as her artistic and calligraphic skills, she became the first female artist to have an audience with the Meiji Empress. In the 1870s she opened a school for both men and women (including a dormitory for female students), which came to host over three hundred students, including Okakura Tenshin.
In the 1890s she moved to rural Kumagaya outside Tokyo, where she lived quietly until her death in 1913.

Sources
https://www.riabrodell.com/okuhara-seiko-watanabe-seiran
https://noma.org/okuhara-seiko/
http://www.elisarolle.com/queerplaces/klmno/Okuhara%20Seiko.html
https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=577069831&sxsrf=AM9HkKm6gQt2kBVBaNhH9dtcAtvoVNvSow:1698383916053&q=%E5%A5%A5%E5%8E%9F%E6%99%B4%E6%B9%96&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBv4iQvZWCAxXjm4kEHWDMDWMQ0pQJegQICxAB&biw=1240&bih=558&dpr=1.5 (Apologies for the cumbersome link to Google image search, but it’s the quickest way of seeing a large variety of Seiko’s work)

Comments

[silveredeye]

Wow, what a fascinating life. :D

[nnozomi]

Yes! I wasn't able to find a whole lot of detail but she sounds amazing.

[sakana17]

The link to Seiko's work is appreciated! Impressive variety. I love the work at NOMA - there's something accessibly intimate about the collection of scholars' objects in the painting. As always, following the links took me down interesting rabbitholes.

[nnozomi]

I don't know the first thing about visual art, but I find her paintings gorgeous!

[mekare]

What beautiful paintings, and a fascinating life! One of the images (the one with the blue mountains was very reminiscent of A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains（《千里江山图》from the Song dynasty.

[nnozomi]

One of the images (the one with the blue mountains was very reminiscent of A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains（《千里江山图》from the Song dynasty.
Oh, neat! That's interesting to know, especially with regard to how her studies of classical Chinese painting affected her work.