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Hosoi Kotaku
(b Kyoto, 1658; d Edo [now Tokyo], 1735). Japanese calligrapher and seal-carver. He was probably the most important Japanese master of Karayo (Chinese-style) calligraphy in the early 18th century. The son of a physician from Totomi Province (now in Shizuoka Prefect.), Kotaku went to Edo as a youth to receive a Confucian education. He studied the Chinese classics with Sakai Zenken (d 1703) and also learnt a number of cultivated arts and skills such as poetry, painting, seal-carving, mathematics, astronomy and munitions. He also studied Karayo calligraphy with Kitajima Setsuzan (1636–97), who popularized in Japan the styles of Chinese calligraphers such as Wen Zhengming (see WEN, (1)) of the Yuan (1279–1368) and Ming (1368–1644) periods. Immigrant Obaku (Chin. Huangbo) Zen monks had brought this literati style, which became admired and practised partly because of the Tokugawa government’s strong support for Chinese scholarly and cultural attainments (see JAPAN, §VII, 2(vi)). After completing his education, Kotaku accepted a position as adviser on firearms to the shogunate councillor Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu (1658–1714). Kotaku’s primary interest, however, was in the arts, particularly calligraphy, so he eventually resigned his position and lived as a calligraphy teacher and author. His several publications on calligraphy include books showing varieties of seal-script (Jap. tensho; Chin. zuan shu) characters, but his most influential publication was Shibi jiyo (‘Purple fern writing method’; 1724), which described the proper method of holding the brush, the fundamental brushstrokes and correct and incorrect methods of writing. Kotaku seldom used the Japanese kana syllabary but mastered all five Chinese scripts—seal (Jap. tensho; Chin. zuanshu), clerical (Jap. reisho; Chin. lishu), regular (Jap. kaisho; Chin. kaishu), running (Jap. gyosho; Chin. xingshu) and cursive (Jap. sosho; Chin. caoshu). His writing demonstrates his thorough study of Chinese models: the brushwork is strong, bold and dramatic, with firm, thick lines and a vertical accentuation of individual characters. Kotaku utilized every format, including pairs of six-panel screens, which were not a medium for calligraphy in China (see JAPAN, fig. 130). Through his teachings, his books and his personal example, Kotaku did a great deal to spread interest in Chinese-style calligraphy in Japan.
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