(b Mizue, Bitchu Prov. [now Okayama Prefect.], 1773; d Kyoto, 1845). Japanese painter. A leading painter of the Shijo school in Kyoto (see JAPAN, §VI, 4(viii)), Toyohiko was born into a family of sake merchants. He began his artistic career in Bitchu, studying literati (Nanga or Bunjinga) painting (see JAPAN, §VI, 4(vi)(d)) with Kuroda Ryozan (?1757–1814). The growing reputation of Maruyama–Shijo painting drew him to Kyoto, where he entered the studio of MATSUMURA GOSHUN. In an atelier that contained many students, including the master’s half-brother, MATSUMURA KEIBUN, Toyohiko was recognized as the chief pupil. After Goshun’s death in 1811, Toyohiko and the younger Keibun shared leadership of the Shijo school, emerging as the most popular painters in Kyoto in the first half of the 19th century. By avoiding conflict over the contending claims of seniority and kinship, the two men ensured the future of the Shijo school and the survival of Goshun’s artistic legacy. Cooperation between Toyohiko and Keibun may have been facilitated by the fact that each represented a different aspect of Goshun’s eclectic style. Keibun excelled at flower-and-bird pictures (kachoga), featuring detailed realism and the decorative use of brilliant colours, the result of his and Goshun’s studies of MARUYAMA OKYO. In his landscapes and figure paintings, Toyohiko favoured the Bunjinga style he had received in his earliest training, reinforced by Goshun’s own formative study with the poet–painter YOSA BUSON.

• Okamoto Toyohiko
  • Matsumura Keibun
  • pupils
    • Japan, §VI, 4(viii)(c): Late naturalistic painting of the Maruyama–Shijo school: Matsumura Goshun