, also known as the , was a short-lived school of painting within the larger Japanese genre of ''ranga'', or Dutch-style painting which lasted roughly from 1773 to 1780. Based in

Kubota Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain in Edo period Japan, located in Dewa Province (modern-day Akita Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Kubota Castle in what is now the city of Akita, Akita, Akita and was thus also known as the . It was governe ...

, a

feudal domain A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. In contrast, th ...

, in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, , or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains ...

Honshū , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the seventh-largest island in the world, and the second-most populous after the Indonesian ...

, northern Japan, in what is now

Akita Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in ; "Tōhoku" in . Its population is estimated 915,691 as of 1 August 2023 and its geographi ...

, it was headed by the domain's lord Satake Shozan and his retainer Odano Naotake. Though many ''ranga'' artists, most prominently

Shiba Kōkan , born Andō Kichirō (安藤吉次郎) or Katsusaburō (勝三郎), was a Japanese painter and printmaker of the Edo period, famous both for his Western-style ''yōga'' paintings, in imitation of Dutch oil painting styles, methods, and themes, ...

, produced works on European themes, the Akita painters for the most part painted traditional Japanese themes and compositions using Western-style techniques and an approximation of oil paints. Some of the chief features that distinguish Akita ''ranga'' from traditional Japanese painting (

nihonga ''Nihonga'' () is a Japanese style of painting that typically uses mineral pigments, and occasionally ink, together with other organic pigments on silk or paper. The term was coined during the Meiji period (1868–1912) to differentiate it from ...

) are the inclusion of shadows, the use of perspective, reflections in water, and the use of blue for sky and sea. In addition, ''ranga'' artists left little or no blank space on a work, emulating Western art traditions and going against East Asian ones, and used oils and resins in addition to Japanese pigments to simulate the appearance of

oil paint Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. Oil paint also has practical advantages over other paints, mainly because it is waterproof. The earliest surviving ...

. Many of their works feature a large foreground subject which displays techniques in light and shadow, with a small, distant, landscape, displaying an understanding of perspective projection techniques.

History

The school got its start when ''

rangaku ''Rangaku'' (Kyūjitai: , ), and by extension , is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the countr ...

'' (Dutch studies) scholar

Hiraga Gennai was a Japanese polymath and ''rōnin'' of the Edo period. He was a pharmacologist, student of ''Rangaku'', author, painter and inventor well known for his '' Erekiteru'' (electrostatic generator), ''Kandankei'' (thermometer) and ''Kakanpu'' ...

was invited to help advise the domain on the management of its copper mines. The area was a primary provider of copper to the archipelago in this period, much of which was also exported via Dutch traders based at

Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

. Though Gennai is known primarily as a physician, botanist and inventor, he was a ''ranga'' painter as well, and mentored Shozan in Western artistic techniques. Odano Naotake, one of Shozan's chief retainers, was then sent to

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

to live and study with Gennai for five years, and it is believed that he likely came into contact with a number of other artists and ''rangaku'' scholars during this time. Returning to Akita, he composed, along with Shozan, three treatises on Western style painting. These were among the first of their kind to be produced in Japan. The school worked primarily from sketchbooks and from life studies of plants, birds, and insects. Since its members were all fairly wealthy, and of the

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

class, they had little need to sell their works, but their influence was felt by some commercial artists, including Shiba Kōkan. Hiraga Gennai was arrested and imprisoned in 1779 for killing one of his disciples in anger and frustration; he killed himself soon afterwards. Odano Naotake, being closely associated with Gennai, was dismissed from his official position in Edo. The movement came to an end shortly after the death of Satake Shozan in 1780 and Odano Naotake in 1785.

Main artists

* Satake Shozan * Odano Naotake * Satake Yoshimi

References

*Vaporis, Constantine Nomikos. ''Tour of Duty''. University of Hawaii Press (2008). page 227. *Thunberg, C. P. ''Japan Extolled and Decried: Carl Peter Thunberg's Travels in Japan 1775–1776''. Routledge (005) *Screech. Timon. ''The Shogun's Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity''. Reaktion (2000). -

External links

Akita Ranga at JAANUS
Accessed 16 May 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Akita Ranga Schools of Japanese art History of Akita Prefecture 1770s in art 1770s in Japan