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Kichizan
Japanese painter
Quick Facts
Kichizan (born 1352, Awaji-shima, Japan—died Sept. 26, 1431, Japan) was the last major professional painter of Buddhist iconography in Japan. He was a priest, associated with the Zen Buddhist Tōfuku-ji (temple) in Kyōto. Of the Buddhist paintings that he did for the temple, the best known is the portrait of Shōichi (1202–80), founder of the temple. The painting is a chinsō, an official portrait of a high-ranking ecclesiastic in which emphasis is placed upon the realistic depiction of the face and the robes. It shows to good advantage the heavy curved outlines for which his painting style is famous. He ...(100 of 151 words)