Seiho Takeuchi1864~1942 竹内栖鳳

TAKEUCHI Seiho (real name Takeuchi Tsunekichi) was a leading prewar nihonga painter, born on December 20, 1864, in the Kamemasa restaurant on Oike-dori Aburanokoji in Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto. At age 14, he began studying painting under the local Shijo-school painter Tsuchida Eirin, and in 1881 entered the private academy of Kono Bairei, who bestowed on him the artist name “Seiho.” As the central figure of the Kyoto painting circle, he trained numerous disciples and left a major mark on the modernization of nihonga. He was appointed an Imperial Household Artist (Teishitsu Gigeiin) and received the first Order of Culture in 1937, and together with Yokoyama Taikan was praised as “Taikan in the East, Seiho in the West.” He died on August 23, 1942.