(b Osaka, 1652; d Edo [now Tokyo], 1724). Japanese painter. The second son of a physician, he went to Edo when he was 15 and began his artistic training under Kano Yasunobu (see KANO, (13)). Itcho disliked the constraints of the KANO tradition, preferring the richer colour of TOSA painting and the lively genre depictions of urban life by such pioneers of ukiyoe (‘pictures of the floating world’; see JAPAN, §VI, 4(iv)(b)) as HISHIKAWA MORONOBU. Itcho’s unwillingness to embrace Kano norms led to his expulsion from Yasunobu’s tutelage. He achieved independence through the patronage of individual merchants rather than that of established élites. His art was a distinctive blend of ukiyoe subjects and a light, often satirical tone, but in a controlled style still influenced by Kano brushwork. He enjoyed the pleasures of the world he depicted and participated in the urban intellectual culture of the late 17th century. He studied haiku poetry with Matsuo Basho (1644–94) and perhaps influenced Basho’s painting style. A further dimension of Itcho’s art is revealed in his haiga (painting illustrating a haiku). An example of one such collaboration is Itcho’s sketch of a bagworm cocoon, which accompanies Basho’s haiku about the insect (Tenri, Cent. Lib.). Itcho occasionally ran foul of the authorities, suffering imprisonment and, in 1698, exile to the island of Miyakejima. He continued to paint in exile, treating rural themes such as Country Scenes (six-panel folding screen; Washington, DC, Freer). He was pardoned in 1709 and returned to Edo, where he began to use the name Hanabusa and founded the Hanabusa school, achieving considerable popularity with his works in an ukiyoe vein. His importance lies in the bridge he provided between ukiyoe and the Kano school.

• Hanabusa Itcho
  • Kano school, §3: 1600–1868