Kaihō Yūshō

▪ Japanese painter

born 1533, Ōmi province, Japan

died March 1, 1615, Kyōto

      major Japanese screen painter of the Azuchi-Momoyama period.

      Born into a military family, Yūshō entered the priesthood after he came to Kyōto. He initially studied under a Kanō (Kanō Eitoku) artist (probably Eitoku) but later established his own independent school of painting. He was famous during his lifetime, and his patrons included Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the emperor Go-Yōzei. Yūshō was adept both in the rich, colourful painting style developed by Eitoku and in the more subdued monochromatic ink tradition of the Zen priest-painters. When doing figures in the latter style (e.g., his pictures of Chinese sages), he used a genpitsu (“reduced brushstrokes”) technique reminiscent of Liang K'ai, an early-13th-century Chinese painter whose work was popular in Japan. These portraits are called fukuro-e after the loosely defined garments that seem to hang like voluminous sacks upon the figures.

      Some of Yūshō's work can be seen in the Myōshin Temple in Kyōto and in the Kyōto Onishi Museum of Art. His Kanō-style screen paintings are notable for their graceful lines (e.g., “Plum Tree,” in the Kennin Temple, Kyōto) and brilliant colour harmonies (e.g., “Fishing Nets,” in the Tokyo National Museum), qualities that influenced later artists.

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