Kawamura Kiyoo was a yôga (Western-style) painter of the Meiji period who studied in France and Italy from 1871 to roughly 1880. He is perhaps most well-known for a portrait he painted in 1885 of Katsu Kaishû departing Edo castle in 1868 after successfully convincing the Tokugawa shogunate to turn the castle over peacefully to imperial forces.
Following Katsu's death in 1899, Kawamura painted a work entitled "Garment as Memento" (形見の直垂) which depicts a woman in a hitatare kimono such as would be worn by pallbearers, seated before a bust of Katsu.[1]
References
- Gallery labels, Edo-Tokyo Museum.[3]