Takai Kozan (1806-1883)


Meiji era (1868-1912), circa 1870-1880Kakejiku (vertical hanging scroll); ink and colours on paper in silk mounts, depicting two monstrous ghosts, one of them on horseback; signed Kozan giga (Painted for fun by Kozan) with two seals, one of them in the form of an imaginary animal; with a wooden storage box. Overall: 115cm x 64.5cm (46½in x 25 3/8in); image: 36cm x 56cm (14 1/8in x 22in). (2).
|Born to a wealthy sake-brewing and farming family in present-day Nagano Prefecture, Takai Kozan studied calligraphy, painting, poetry, and neo-Confucian philosophy with leading masters in both Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo). He succeeded to the family title in 1840 but he was famous for his charitable attitude toward the peasantry and had little taste for business management, preferring to study Zen Buddhism and cultivate a wide circle of friends including Katsushika Hokusai. He subsequently became an employee of the Meiji government and in his later years earned a living painting giant banners for local shrines; his memorial museum in Obuse, Nagano Prefecture still houses some of the huge brushes he used for that project.