Artists

Yoda Chikoku

Yoda Chikoku (依田竹谷, 1790–1843) was a Nanga painter in Edo and a student of Tani Bunchō. His most famous student was Takaku Ryūko.

Published on: May 31, 2025

Kakemono by Yoda Chikoku: pine, bamboo, and blossoming plum in ink with signature and seal. — The Three Friends of Winter – kakemono by Yoda Chikoku (依田竹谷), Edo period (detail)

In a nutshell

Yoda Chikoku (依田竹谷) was a Japanese Nanga painter of the late Edo period (1790–1843). His personal name was Kin, his azana were Shichō and Shukunen; besides Chikoku he also used the art names Ryōkan Dōjin, Sankokuan, and Eikasai. He studied under Tani Bunchō in Edo and worked across the entire thematic range of literati painting – flowers and birds, landscapes, figures, as well as insects and fish. His student Takaku Ryūko carried the tradition forward. Chikoku died in 1843 at the age of 54.

Yoda Chikoku (依田竹谷): Literati Painter in the Late Edo Period

Yoda Chikoku (依田竹谷, 1790–1843) was a Japanese painter of the Nanga school, Japanese literati painting. He lived in Edo in the Shitaya Ōtonomachi district and died in 1843 at the age of 54. His personal name was Kin (瑾), and his azana were Shichō (子長) and Shukunen (叔年).

Art Names and Their Meaning

Besides Chikoku (竹谷), he used several other gō: Ryōkan Dōjin (凌寒道人), Sankokuan (三谷庵), and Eikasai (盈科斎). Such names are not mere labels in literati painting but statements of intent – "Ryōkan," for instance, refers to standing firm in the cold, a motif closely connected in the pictorial world of Nanga with pine, bamboo, and plum, the so-called three friends of winter.

Student of Tani Bunchō, Teacher of Takaku Ryūko

Chikoku studied under Tani Bunchō, the most influential painter in Edo of his generation. He later left that school and continued working independently thereafter. This did not affect his teaching activity: his student Takaku Ryūko later succeeded Takaku Aigai, thereby himself becoming a link in the Bunchō lineage.

Flowers, Birds, Landscapes: The Range of Subjects in Chikoku's Work

Chikoku worked across the full breadth of literati painting – flower-and-bird pictures, landscapes, figure paintings, as well as insects and fish. Among the surviving works are a depiction of two deer in moonlight, a willow with a white-eye bird, an owl picture, and a portrait of the Confucian disciple Bu Shang. This range corresponds to the demands of literati painting, in which mastery of the brush, not specialization in a single subject, determines the painter's standing.

The Three Friends of Winter

Pine, bamboo, and flowering plum together form a motif that has stood for the same thing in East Asia for centuries: the pine keeps its needles, the bamboo bends without breaking, the plum blossoms first, while snow still lies on the ground. Constancy, resilience, renewal — three attitudes in one picture. Such a kakemono belongs at the turn of the year and in the cold season, making it one of the few motifs that can be hung from December through February. In literati painting it is almost always executed in ink, with color used at most on the blossoms.