Kitao Masayoshi (北尾政美)
Kitao Masayoshi (北尾政美; 1764 - April 21, 1824), also known as Kuwagata Keisai (鍬形蕙斎), was a Ukiyo-e artist of the Edo era. He was born Akabane Sanjiro and raised in Nihonbashi in Edo (Tokyo). He became a disciple of the artist Kitao Shigemasa (1739 - 1820) and began illustrating books around age 13. Throughout his career, he excelled at Kibyōshi 'yellow cover' picture book drawings, producing relatively few Nishiki-e by comparison to other artists of the era. In 1794, Kitao Masayoshi became the official painter (御用絵師) of the Tsuyama Domain (津山藩) and took the name Kuwagata Keisai Tsuguzane (鍬形蕙斎紹真). At this point, he gave up Kibyōshi and focused on Ukiyo-e, studying with Kano Korenobu (1753 - 1808), the seventh generation of the hereditary position of court painter at the Tokugawa court in Edo. Around this time, he produced his two of his best known works, a panoramic bird's-eye view of Japan and a bird's-eye view of Edo, both being pathbreaking works in that genre in Japan. Later in life, Kitao Masayoshi took up kyōka poetry. His position of court painter to Tsuyama Domain was hereditary, but Kuwagata Keisai had no children and instead adopted another painter working for the daimyo of Tsuyama Domain, who took the name Kuwagata Sekichi (鍬形赤子; 1800 - 1855), whose own adopted son took the name Kuwagata Keirin (鍬形蕙林; 1827 - 1909) and inherited the role.
AKA: 北尾政美
First Bird's-Eye View of Japan.
[日本名所之繪 / Picture of the Famous Places of Japan]
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This is an important c. 1805 Ukiyo-e bird's-eye view of Japan prepared by Kitao Masayoshi. It is the first artistic bird's-eye view of the Japanese archipelago, and influenced the work of Katsushika Hokusai and later Japanese bird's-eye-view artists. (more details)