Iwasa Matabei

Iwasa Matabei was born in 1578 (Tensho 6) in Itami, Settsu Province (now Itami, Hyogo Prefecture), the youngest son of Araki Murashige, lord of Arioka Castle. The following year Murashige rebelled against Oda Nobunaga and was defeated; while most of the clan was killed, Matabei, then two years old by traditional reckoning, is said to have been rescued by his wet nurse. As an adult he took the surname Iwasa, said to be his mother's family name.

In 1616 (Genna 2) he left Kyoto for Kitanosho in Echizen (now Fukui City) and spent more than twenty years in Fukui. He later moved to Edo and died in 1650 (Keian 3). Traveling among Kyoto, Fukui, and Edo, he left masterpieces on folding screens and handscrolls.

He is known by the nicknames "Ukiyo Matabei" and "Domori no Matabei." The Scenes in and around Kyoto screens (Funaki version) are known as a work attributed to Matabei.