"The Genius of Ike no Taiga: Carefree Traveler, Legendary Painter," at Kyoto National Museum, is magisterial. Edo Period (1603-1868) Kyoto teemed with big name painters, but Taiga (1723-1776) was superlative.
Taiga began the practice of calligraphy when a child, and was pseudo-certified in 1729 as a "supernaturally gifted child" by Kodo Gencho, the 12th abbot of Manpuku-ji Temple. By his 40s, he had matured into a painter of reputation. The first edition of Kyoto's 18th-century equivalent of "Who's Who," the 1768 "Heian Jinbutsu Shi," listed Taiga's name in two of its six categories, esteemed calligraphers and painters, with the other four enumerating famed living scholars, seal-engravers, physiognomists and geomancers.
Born to a lower-ranking samurai official of Kyoto's silver mint, Taiga became part of the second generation of Japan's nanga artists, a term referring to the so-called southern school of painting derived from earlier Chinese literati practices. His early calligraphy was often in archaic and clerical Chinese scripts and, by age 15, Taiga had his own artisan shop in Kyoto selling fans he decorated with Chinese motifs and themes drawn from imported painting manuals. In addition to the financial contribution offered for his fan painting, those recognizing Taiga's abilities supported him through a network of patronage. These included Yanagisawa Kien, a painter, calligrapher and chief advisor to the Yamato Koriyama domain.
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