Portrait of Ichikawa Beian

This is a portrait of Ichikawa Beian, known as a calligrapher of the late Edo period. His father was Ichikawa Kansai, a famous Confucian scholar and Chinese-style poet. The painting is 129.5 cm high and 59 cm wide, and it is designated an Important Cultural Property.

According to the inscription Beian himself wrote on the picture, it was made for his 60th birthday in Tenpo 9 (1838), but other records show that the portrait itself was finished the year before. Watanabe Kazan was 45 at the time, and the work is regarded as a portrait from his mature period. Together with the accompanying preliminary sketch, it can be seen as a high point of Kazan's painting.

The sketch and the finished portrait differ slightly in the face. Painting theory of the day held that a portrait should express a person's virtue rather than merely resemble him, and Kazan is said to have followed that tradition. In the image, a man in a black cap and green robes sits beneath an inscription written at the top.