The Scholar Takami Senseki

Senseki, dressed in formal samurai attire, stares straight ahead with a piercing gaze. The garments are drawn lightly with simple lines and pale colors, while the face is given fine shading, so that one can feel even the bone structure and the tautness of the skin. The contrast between garments and face gathers the sitter's presence at the center of the picture.

Senseki was a chief retainer of the Koga domain and also a scholar of Dutch learning who studied Western knowledge. Kazan was a chief retainer of the Tahara domain stationed in Edo, who devoted himself to domain reform and, to help his hard-pressed household finances, also worked at painting. He associated with Senseki through Dutch learning and developed a distinctive style that incorporated Western perspective and shading. The Takami family tradition holds that this is Senseki in the formal dress he wore when he visited Seiganji in Asakusa on behalf of his lord. This work is the finest masterpiece among Kazan's portraits.

The signature states that it was made on the fifteenth day of the fourth month of Tenpo 8 (1837). The work was passed down in the Takami family in Koga and, in 1938, was transferred to the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum (today's Tokyo National Museum) to commemorate the opening of its main building, rebuilt after the Great Kanto Earthquake.