Hanabusa Itchō

Place: Osaka

Born: 1652

Death: 1724

Biography:

Hanabusa Itchō (英 一蝶, 1652 – February 7, 1724) was a Japanese painter born in Osaka, calligrapher, and haiku poet. He originally trained in the Kanō style, under Kanō Yasunobu, but ultimately rejected that style and became a literati (bunjin). He was also known as Hishikawa Waō and by a number of other art-names. Hanabusa Itchō was the master of the later painter Sawaki Suushi. Hanabusa studied poetry under the master Matsuo Bashō, and is said to have been an excellent calligrapher as well. His friends included the poets Matsuo Bashō and Enomoto Kikaku. His work is held in several institutions worldwide, including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Libraries, the Israel Museum , the Suntory Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, the Museum of Cultural History Oslo, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the National Museum of Korea, and the British Museum.