Kimura Tangen

• Born: 1679
• Died: 1767
• Japanese: 木村 探元 (Kimura Tangen)

Kimura Tangen was a notable painter of the Edo period.

Born in Kagoshima City in 1679, he traveled to Edo in 1703, at the age of 25, where he studied painting under Kanô Tanshin. He returned to Kagoshima two years later, and became a court painter for the Shimazu clan lords of Satsuma han. He was later invited to Kyoto to produce works for the Konoe family, and was eventually granted the honorary Buddhist title of hôkyô ("Bridge of the Law").

Among his notable works are fusuma paintings for the decor of the honmaru palace of Kagoshima castle, and for a mansion of the Konoe family, as well as a portrait of Ryukyuan scholar-official Tei Junsoku.

References

• Plaque at the site of Tangen's birthplace in Kagoshima.[1]
• Ono Masako, Tomita Chinatsu, Kanna Keiko, Taguchi Kei, "Shiryô shôkai Kishi Akimasa bunko Satsuyû kikô," Shiryôhenshûshitsu kiyô 31 (2006), 256.