was the 8th ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' of

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 ...

Dewa Province was a province of Japan comprising modern-day Yamagata Prefecture and Akita Prefecture, except for the city of Kazuno and the town of Kosaka. Dewa bordered on Mutsu and Echigō Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History Early per ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

(modern-day

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 ...

), and then 26th hereditary chieftain of the

Satake clan The was a Japanese clan, Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Minamoto clan. Its first power base was in Hitachi Province. The clan was subdued by Minamoto no Yoritomo in the late 12th century, but later entered Yoritomo's serv ...

. His

courtesy title A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but is rather used by custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title). In some context ...

was '' Ukyo-daifu'' and ''Jijū'' and his Court rank was Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade. He was also founder of the '' Akita ranga'' school of

Japanese painting is one of the oldest and most highly refined of the Japanese visual arts, encompassing a wide variety of genres and styles. As with the history of Japanese arts in general, the long history of Japanese painting exhibits synthesis and competiti ...

and is more commonly known by his pen name, .

Biography

Satake Yoshiatsu was the eldest son of Satake Yoshiharu and was born at the domain's

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 ...

residence. He became ''daimyō'' on his father's death in 1758. He was received in formal audience by

Shogun , officially , was the title of the military aristocracy, rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor of Japan, Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, exc ...

Tokugawa Ieharu Tokugawa Ieharu 徳川家治 (20 June 1737 – 17 September 1786) was the tenth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, who held office from 1760 to 1786. His childhood name was Takechiyo (竹千代). Ieharu died in 1786 and given the ...

in 1763 and made his first visit to his domain in 1765. The domain had been devastated by years of crop failures, peasant uprisings, plots among his retainers and fiscal mismanagement by his predecessors. Yoshiatsu sought to escape this reality through art, and was a member of a painting coterie which included fellow ''daimyō'' Yamauchi Toyochika of

Tosa Domain The was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Tosa Province in what is now Kōchi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It was centered around Kōchi Castle, and was ruled throughout its ...

and Shimazu Shigehide of

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a Han system, domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of ...

. At the time, the

Kanō school The is one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting. The Kanō school of painting was the dominant style of painting from the late 15th century until the Meiji era, Meiji period which began in 1868, by which time the school had divided i ...

of painting was considered orthodoxy, and painting was regarded as a "gentleman's hobby"; however, Yoshiatsu devoted all of his time and efforts into painting, developing a new style which combined western techniques with Japanese themes. Along with his retainer Odano Naotake, he produced a number of paintings in the Dutch style and in 1778, he wrote the ''Gahō Kōryō'' (画法綱領), the first work on western painting to be written in Japan. He was also a student of ''

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'' ...

, whom he had invited to Akita to advise him on management of the domain's copper mines (Akita was the primary source of copper in the Japanese archipelago during this period). He died in 1785, at the young age of 38. He was married to a daughter of Yamauchi Toyonobu of Tosa Domain and at least three concubines, by whom he had four sons and six daughters.

References

"Akita ranga" at JAANUS
Accessed 16 May 2007. * Frederic, Louis (2002). "Satake Shozan." ''Japan Encyclopedia.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. * Tazawa, Yutaka: Satake Shozan. In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981. . * Laurance P. Roberts: Shozan. In: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists. Weatherhill, 1976. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Satake, Yoshiharu 1748 births 1785 deaths Satake clan Tozama daimyo People of the Edo period Japanese painters

Biography

See also

References