Soga Shōhaku
Japanese painter (1730-1781)
Soga Shōhaku (曾我 蕭白; 1730 – January 30, 1781) was a Japanese painter of the Edo period. Shōhaku distinguished himself from his contemporaries by preferring the brush style of the Muromachi period, an aesthetic that was already passé 150 years before his birth. His monstrous depictions of prominent figures were extremely unusual compared to other painters of his time.
Biography
Miura Sakonjirō was born in 1730, into a merchant family, as the second son of Miura Kichiemon and his wife Yotsu. His family was wealthy, but all of his immediate family members died before he reached the age of 18.
He became a painter in his late 20s, and studied under Takada Keiho of the prominent Kanō School, which drew upon Chinese techniques and subject matters. It is recorded that he studied the painting methods of the Soga School and the Unkoku School, which his actual artwork reflects.
He produced many paintings during his travel to Ise Province. He was also active in Harima Province.
His disillusionment with the Kanō School led him to appreciate the works of Muromachi period painter Soga Jasoku.
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This entry incorporates text from “Soga Shōhaku” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.