Oda Shitsushitsu · 1779–1832
Oda Shitsushitsu
Oda Shitsushitsu was a late Edo-period woman painter born in Omi Province (present-day Shiga Prefecture). She studied under Mikuma Roka and excelled at paintings of cherry blossoms, but later became a nun and lived out her life as a Buddhist-nun painter.
Oda Shitsushitsu was born in 1779 in Omi Province (present-day Shiga Prefecture) and died in 1832. She was a woman painter of the late Edo period. Her given name was Masae, and her real name is also said to have been Tsuda Masae. Her paternal ancestor is said to have been Nobusada, the ninth son of Oda Nobunaga.
She studied painting under Mikuma Roka and was established as a painter by about 17, showing talent early. After the death of Mikuma Shiko she was active as the inheritor of cherry-blossom painting. She and Roka were expected to have bright futures as women painters, but when her teacher Roka died, she disappeared from view for about ten years.
For a time she went to Kyoto and worked there, but in the end she returned to her hometown and entered Buddhist orders, spending the latter part of her life as a nun painter with no ties to the art world. She excelled at paintings with cherry blossoms as their subject. Her works include "Cherry Blossoms along the Sumida River."
