Charles Wirgman (31 August 1832 - 8 February 1891) was an English artist, caricaturist and

editorial cartoonist An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or current ...

, the creator of the '' Japan Punch'' and illustrator in China and

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

-Japan for the '' Illustrated London News''. Wirgman was the eldest son of Ferdinand Charles Wirgman (1806–57) and brother of Theodore Blake Wirgman. He married Ozawa Kane in 1863, and the couple had one son. Wirgman arrived in Japan in 1861 as a correspondent for the ''Illustrated London News'', and resided in

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

from 1861 until his death. He published the first magazine in Japan, the ''Japan Punch'', monthly between 1862 and spring 1887. Like its British namesake, the magazine was written in a humorous, often satirical manner, and was illustrated with Wirgman's cartoons. Wirgman formed a partnership called "Beato & Wirgman, Artists and Photographers" with Felice Beato from 1864 to 1867. Wirgman again produced illustrations derived from Beato's photographs while Beato photographed some of Wirgman's sketches and other works. Wirgman taught western-style drawing and painting techniques to a number of Japanese artists, possibly including the

ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock printing, woodblock prints and Nikuhitsu-ga, paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes ...

artist Kobayashi Kiyochika. From 1865 he had Goseda Yoshimatsu and Kanō Tomonobu as his pupils. In 1866 he taught Takahashi Yuichi, sponsoring his work for the International Exposition of 1867. He also was briefly an English tutor, most notably to the future Admiral Tōgō, then a young cadet.Clements, Jonathan. ''Admiral Togo: Nelson of the East'' (2010) p.39 In the 1860s, he accompanied British envoy Sir

Ernest Satow Sir Ernest Mason Satow (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), was a British diplomat, scholar and Japanologist. He is better known in Japan, where he was known as , than in Britain or the other countries in which he served as a diplomat. He was ...

on a number of journeys around Japan as described in Satow's ''Diplomat in Japan''. Wirgman's grave is in the Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery.

References

* ''The Genius of Mr. Punch: Life in Yokohama's Foreign Settlement: Charles Wirgman and the Japan Punch, 1862-1887'', compiled and annotated by Jozef Rogala, Translations by Hitomi Yamashita, Yurindo Co. Ltd, Yokohama 2004.

External links

Japan and the Illustrated London News
- lecture to the Japan Society by Terry Bennett. 1832 births 1891 deaths English expatriates in Japan British people of the Second Opium War British editorial cartoonists English caricaturists English publishers (people) Culture in Yokohama History of mass media in Japan Japanese editorial cartoonists Japanese caricaturists British satirists Japanese satirists Japanese publishers (people) {{japan-bio-stub

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References

External links