Kiyokata Kaburagi was a Japanese painter, the leading master of the bijin-ga genre in Taishō and Shōwa period Japan. He is known for his works depicting Tokyo and its people in the Meiji era.
Background
Kiyokata, whose real name was Kaburagi Kenichi, was born in Tokyo, Japan, on August 31, 1878, to an affluent and well-educated family. Kiyokata's father was the founder and president of the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun newspaper, and a writer of popular novels.
Education
In 1891, when he was 13 years old, Kiyokata was sent to become an apprentice of Taiso Yoshitoshi and Mizuno Toshikata, painters in the tradition of ukiyo-e (paintings and wood-block prints of the "floating world").
Career
Kiyokata Kaburagi's first job was an illustrator for Yamato Shinbun, a Tokyo newspaper founded by his father. When he was sixteen, his father went bankrupt and the family had to sell their home. Kiyokata continued to work as an illustrator and around the age of 17 he became a well-known professional, who cooperated with a number of newspapers. He created frontispieces called kuchi-e, illustrating the titles of popular novels. His works were highly acclaimed by famous writer Kyōka Izumi. He even insisted that his novels would be illustrated by Kiyokata Kaburagi. However, Kiyokata rejected his offer as his foremost interest was painting.
In 1901 he gathered his painter friends, and together they founded a group called Ugōkai ("the Rabble"), and aimed at improving the art of ukiyo-e, which had deteriorated into superficial genre painting and illustration. In 1907 the government-sponsored Bunten exhibitions were started. Since then Kiyokata Kaburagi painted full-time.
He worked together with Hirafuku Hyakusui, Matsuoka Eikyu, Kikkawa Reika and Yuki Somei, and in 1917 Kiyokata became a co-founder of the Kinreisha. It was a Nihonga association training promising young artists, such as Kawase Hasui. Kiyokata Kaburagi organized exhibitions, presenting works of his students and introduced the best of them to Watanabe, a Japanese publisher and printmaker who started an export woodcut print business and needed many talented artists to make print designs. Apart from Kawase Hasui, also Itō Shinsui, Shiro Kasamasu, Yamakawa Shūhō, Torii Kotondo and Terashima Shimei were trained by Kaburagi and then introduced to Watanabe.
Kiyokata Kaburagi was in his late 40s, when he became a highly respected artist. In 1938 the artist was appointed to the Art Committee of the Imperial Household. Kiyokata was given the official position of court painter in 1944. He was invited to be one of the judges for the first post-war Nitten Exhibition in 1946.
Kiyokata's house in Tokyo was destroyed during World War II, and eventually, he moved to Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, where he lived until his death.
Membership
In 1929 Kaburagi became a member of the Imperial Fine Art Academy (Teikoku Bijutsuin).