Background
Tsuji Kakō was born in 1870. He was born was born in Kyoto into a family of textile designers and dyers. Original personal name: Unosuke.
華香 都路
Tsuji Kakō was born in 1870. He was born was born in Kyoto into a family of textile designers and dyers. Original personal name: Unosuke.
Kako Tsuji studied painting from Bairei Kono and became a successful artist specializing in portraitures.His Zen training, which he started in 1899, influenced much of his painting style and led to his name being associated with the unconventional.
Kako Tsuji was an influential figure in Kyoto and a member of Teite, Teikoku Bijutsuin and director of Kyoto Kaiga Semmon Gakko and of Kyoto Industrial Fine Arts School.
Tsuji Kakô became one of the leading figures of the Shijô and Maruyama movements, with Takeuchi Seihō, Kikuchi Hōbun, Taniguchi Kōkyō and Yamamoto Shunkyo. Because of his individual approach and his refusal to be politically correct, Kakô's work never acquired the same appeal and cachet as that of his contemporaries.
In the last ten years of the Meiji era, Kakô became preoccupied with the study of waves, his style breaking with tradition and becoming highly idiosyncratic. During this period Kakô also experimented with the use of colour. His lack of conformity adversely affected his popularity; even so his work came in for scrutiny and critical commentary in many contemporary articles.
In 1928 Kakō was operated on for stomach cancer, and he died in 1931.
