Saru Gallery
       Japanese Prints & Japanese Paintings

Biography Takakura, Kangai 高倉 観崖 (1884 - 1962)

Takakura Kangai, real name Magosaburô, was born in Beppu, Ôita prefecture, Kyushu, in 1884. After he had graduated from the Painting Division of the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts in 1905 he entered the studio of Takeuchi Seihô (1864-1942). He first became famous with bijinga, paintings of female subjects, paintings with striking colours and great attention to detail.
After Kangai had met Hashimoto Kansetsu (1883-1945), the two embarked on a trip to China in 1918. In the autumn of that same year he submitted a triptych showing three elaborate Chinese landscapes to the Bunten. After that he didn't subject paintings to the Bunten again, but he pursued an individual career instead. He organized private exhibitions in Kyoto, and he advertized with Chinese landscapes in literati style. The trip to China in 1918 proved to have been the watershed in his painting career. (Source: Literati Modern, Honolulu 2008).