Hirose Tōhō
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Hirose Tōhō (広瀬東畝): Painter of Flowers and Birds from Kōchi
Hirose Tōhō (広瀬東畝, 1875–1930) was a Japanese painter of the Meiji and Taishō periods. He was born in Sakawa in Takaoka District, Kōchi Prefecture, on Shikoku. His personal name was Wataru (済), his azana Kōbi (公美); he also used several gō, including Enseki (燕石), Kokuho, Shin'an, and Kōunsanbō. He died in 1930 at the age of 55.
Not to Be Confused with Hirose Hakuen
The family name is occasionally misleading: Hirose Hakuen was a painter of the Edo period with ties to Ōmi Province and has nothing to do with Tōhō. Their artist names differ clearly – 東畝 as opposed to 柏園.
From Nanga to the School of Araki Kanpō
Tōhō received his first training under the Nanga painter Amano Sōseki, who was staying in Kōchi at the time; under him he used the gō Enseki. In 1898 he went to Tōkyō and became a student of Araki Kanpō, under whom he learned the combination of southern and northern painting styles known as Nanboku gappa – that cross-school approach which, through Kanpō, traces back to the line of Tani Bunchō.
St. Louis, Bunten, and the Art Associations
In 1904 Tōhō received a silver medal at the World's Fair in St. Louis and became a member of the Japanese Art Society. In 1907 he took part in the founding of the Toyō Art Society, a regional association in his home province. In 1911 his work was accepted for the first time at the fifth Bunten, and from then on he exhibited regularly at the Bunten and the Teiten. His work was most strongly devoted to the painting of flowers and birds.
Sunrise over the Sea
The rising sun over the waves is one of the established New Year motifs of Japanese painting. It combines two auspicious signs – the first sunrise of the year and the open sea – and demands a pictorial restraint that does not come easily to everyone: the disk of the sun itself remains a simple form, and the effect arises from the coloring of the sky and the rhythm of the waves beneath it. Such a kakemono hangs in the tokonoma during the first weeks of the year.
