Saru Gallery
       Japanese Prints & Japanese Paintings

Biography Nanko, Haruki 南湖 春木 (1759 - 1839)

Haruki Nanko was born in Edo in 1759. He was in the service of Masuyama Sessai, who paid for his travels to Kansai and Nagasaki.
In Osaka he was a pupil of Kimura Kenkadō. Later he studied the southern Chinese style in Nagasaki.
Back in Edo he became the first painter working in the southern Chinese style in Edo. He made nanga painting fashionable and very popular. He was equally famous as Tani Bunchō. His recurring themes are landscapes and kachōga; he also left an illustrated diary called Diary of a Journey to Western Japan. He was an accomplished haiku poet.
Among his many pupils were his son Haruki Nammei, his grandson Haruki Nanka, Haruki Seiko, and many others.

References:
Araki, Tsune (ed), Dai Nihon shôga meika taikan, Tokyo 1975 (1934), p.1346
Roberts, Laurance P., A Dictionary of Japanese artists, New York, 1976, p.119