Imao Keinen

Imao Keinen (1845-1924)
Keinen kacho gafu [Keinen's natural history paintings] Kyoto: S. Nishimura, 1891. 4 volumes in two, 2° (366 x 255mm). 6pp. text. 138 coloured wood-block plates on 163 leaves (including 25 'diptych' plates). (One plate holed with slight loss to image area, slight worming to three plates, about six plates browned.) Stitched with cloth head bands within limp cream paper-covered boards, vertical strip of silver-decorated paper mounted on upper covers (light spotting and soiling), within a single modern oatmeal-coloured cloth box, green morocco lettering-piece.
A FINE SERIES OF JAPANESE BIRD PORTRAITS FROM ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ARTISTS IN HIS FIELD. The birds are all shown in naturalistic settings and poses, and include birds-of-prey, herons, egrets, cranes, ducks, geese, buntings, finches, pheasants and parrots. Keinen was born in Kyoto in 1845. After studying under a number of masters (the ukiyo-e style with Umegawa Tokyo, and later with Suzuki Hyakunen) he set up his own studio in 1868 and began to teach. Sometime after 1880 he was appointed professor at the Kyoto Prefectural School of Painting. An important figure in the traditional art circles of Kyoto he won numerous awards both in Japan and abroad and in 1904 became a member of the Art Committee of the Imperial Household. In 1907 he was appointed a juror of the first Bunten, and in 1919 a member of the Teikoku Bijutsuin. (2)