Kikuchi Keigetsu

Born in Nagano. Real name Hosono Kanji. From c.1892 he studied under Kodama Katei. In 1893 he moved to Kyoto where Shijo school artists Kikuchi Hobun and Utsumi Kichido were his teachers. He became a star of the Bunten, receiving many prizes. After 1918 he became a judge for the Bunten and Teiten. In 1922 he traveled in Europe with Nakai Sotaro and Irie Hako. After returning to Japan, he studied Japanese traditional painting including Buddhist as well as ukiyo-e and yamato-e style painting. In 1925 he founded the Kikuchi Painting School. He was appointed member of the Imperial Art Board in 1934. He became a member of the Imperial Art Academy in 1937. (The Female Image: 20th Century Prints of Japanese Beauties. Hotei Publishing, 2000).