Watanabe Kazan

1793～1841
He was born in Edo. (Now Tokyo) He lived as a samurai but not so rich, so he started painting as a side job. He studied under Shizan Shirakawa(白川芝山),Kinnryou Kaneko(金子金陵), and became a disciple of Bunntyo Tani.(谷文晁) He became a chief retainer in 1832 and put much effort in politics. However, he was ordered confinement because of Bannsya-no-goku(蛮社の獄 the incident of suppression of speech.) Then, He committed hara-kiri in 1841.
He was influenced by the artistic style of the West. In his work, There are many great portraits.