Kawahara Keiga · 1786 - after 1860 (Man'en 1)
Kawahara Keiga
Kawahara Keiga was a late Edo-period painter of Nagasaki, born in 1786 (Tenmei 6). As a painter permitted to enter Dejima, he painted genre scenes and portraits and, at Siebold's request, finely detailed sketches of plants and animals.
Kawahara Keiga was born in 1786 (Tenmei 6) in Imashita-machi, Nagasaki (now Tsukimachi, Nagasaki City). His father, Kawahara Kozan, was also a town painter. From around 1811 (Bunka 8) he studied under Ishizaki Yushi, then the leading painter in Nagasaki, rose to prominence, and was permitted to enter the Dutch trading post at Dejima.
Besides portraits of the family of the Dutch chief Blomhoff, he painted Nagasaki customs and scenery and the daily life of the trading post staff. When Siebold came to Japan in 1823 (Bunsei 6), Keiga responded to his orders by making finely detailed sketches of plants and animals, which also served as illustrations for his book Nippon.
In 1842 (Tenpo 13), a view of Nagasaki harbor he painted at the request of a trading post employee was judged a problem, and he was punished. His later life and exact year of death are not known. One of his works is View of Nagasaki Harbor.
