Ragusa Tama

• Born: 1861/6/10
• Died: 1939/4/6
• Other Names: 清原玉 (Kiyohara Tama), Eleonora Ragusa
• Japanese: ラグーザ玉 (Raguuza Tama)

Ragusa Tama was a yôga (Western-style oil) painter of the Meiji through early Shôwa periods, and the wife of Sicilian artist Vincenzo Ragusa, who came to Japan to teach art.

Originally from Edo, and known as Kiyohara Tama, she became a student of the visiting teacher Vincenzo Ragusa, as well as modeling for him. In 1882, she accompanied him back to Italy, where she studied for a time at the University of Palermo. Marrying Ragusa, she took on the Italian name Eleonora, taught at the Palermo School of the Arts, and became a famous painter in her own right.

Following her husband's death in 1933, she returned to Japan. She died six years later, on April 6, 1939, at the age of 78.

References

• "Ragusa Tama," Daijirin, Sanseido.
• "Ragusa Tama," Nihon jinmei daijiten, Kodansha 2009.