Ike no Taiga was a Japanese painter, calligrapher and poet.
Background
Ike no Taiga was born in 1723 in Kyoto, Japan, into a poor and socially humble family.
His father was a farmer on the outskirts of Kyoto. The family moved into Kyoto proper some years before Taiga's birth, possibly to escape famine. His father found work at the silver mint, which granted his family some small degree of wealth, but he died when Taiga was three years of age.
Education
Taiga's widowed mother somehow managed to afford to provide him with good teachers, in all the classical Japanese and Chinese disciplines. At age six, he began receiving instruction in calligraphy at the Manpuku-ji Zen temple.
Taiga began studying under literati painter Yanagisawa Kien in 1738. He also studied under Gion Nankai, and practiced literati painting based on images in imported or reprinted books from China, as well as studying Zen.
Career
By age fourteen, Taiga was a professional artist and distinguished calligrapher. He ran a small fan-painting shop in Kyoto, and engraved artists' and collectors' seals as well.
Taiga became quite fond of the eccentric, but ancient, practice of painting with fingertips and fingernails, and became close friends with two other bunjin students, Kan Tenju and Kō Fuyō.
Taiga returned to Kyoto and to his fan shop in the early 1740s. Though the bunjin lifestyle dictated an avoidance of commercialism, Taiga had no other source of income and so he continued to sell his works and various artistic services, much like his friend Yosa Buson.
In 1748 Taiga set off on a series of journeys, another major element of the bunjin lifestyle. After travels through Kanazawa, Nikkō, and Mt. Fuji, Taiga stayed for a time in Edo. There, he produced paintings and calligraphic pieces, and also learned about Dutch art from a number of Rangaku (Dutch learning) scholars, including Noro Genjō.
Taiga would continue to travel and to climb mountains for much of the rest of his life, often accompanied by bunjin colleagues. For a time, he took on the "gō of Sangaku Dōja" ("Pilgrim of the Three Peaks"). He would often collaborate with his colleagues on joint works of art during those trips; the "Jūben jūgi-jō" ("Album of Ten Conveniences and Ten Pleasures") was created in 1771, as the result of one of these collaborations.
Taiga died in 1776, at the age of 54, in Kyoto, Japan, and was buried at the Jôdô-shû temple of Jôkô-ji, in accordance with his requests.
Untitled (figures playing instruments in a garden)
Untitled (a tree)
Lighting a charcoal brazier (possibly in preparation for a tea ceremony?)
Untitled (View of City from Mountain)
Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly (or a butterfly dreaming of Zhuangzi)
Fishing in Springtime
Untitled (Two Mountains)
A Shunga
Untitled (a tree)
Untitled (a tree without leaves)
Chobenzu
Untitled (Mountains)
A Shunga
Untitled (Mountains)
Landscape with Pavilion, Hanging Scroll
A Shunga
Untitled (Figures)
Untitled (Mountain)
A Shunga
Untitled (Figures)
Untitled (Rocks)
Religion
At age six, he began receiving instruction in religious matters at the Manpuku-ji Zen temple.
Personality
Setting off on a series of journeys, Taiga sought to commune with nature, to glean inspiration for his art, and most of all, to simply become a more cultured and experienced individual.
Interests
Chinese culture
Connections
In 1746 Taiga married a woman from Gion named Machi, though it is unclear whether the two fully went through the proper legal procedures. They built a home near Yasaka Shrine, and lived together. Machi took on the name Gyokuran, and became famous as a painter.
The pair quickly became well-renowned in the social circles and artistic community of Kyoto. Taiga and Gyokuran made their living by selling paintings and other works. Gyokuran studied painting under her husband, and taught him poetry; the two also studied poetry and were intimately involved in literati circles in the region.