Odano Naotake
A samurai of the Akita domain in the mid-Edo period and the leading painter of Akita ranga. He learned Western painting methods from Hiraga Gennai and also drew the illustrations for Kaitai Shinsho. His best-known work, "Shinobazu Pond," is an Important Cultural Property.
Odano Naotake was born in 1750 (Kan'en 2) in Kakunodate, in the Akita domain (now Semboku, Akita Prefecture), the son of a domain samurai. From a young age he studied Kano-school painting and was known for his skill. In 1773 (An'ei 2), when Hiraga Gennai, invited to the Akita domain to advise on its mines, stopped at Kakunodate, the two met, and Naotake is said to have been taught Western painting methods such as perspective and shading.
At the end of that year Naotake went up to Edo on domain business and stayed with Gennai. In Edo he drew the plates for Kaitai Shinsho, translated by Sugita Genpaku and others, copying the copperplate engravings of a Dutch anatomy book. After returning home he passed Western painting methods on to the domain lord Satake Shozan and his family, and became the center of the school known as Akita ranga.
In 1779 (An'ei 8), around the time Gennai was arrested after an incident, Naotake too was sent back to Kakunodate and placed under confinement, and he died the following year at 32 (by traditional reckoning). His active years lasted less than ten, and few works survive. His style can be seen in "Shinobazu Pond" and "Emperor Taizong of Tang and Birds, Flowers, and Landscape" (both Important Cultural Properties) at the Akita Museum of Modern Art, and in works at the Akita Senshu Museum of Art.
