Tawara Kizaemon

• Japanese: 俵 喜左衛門 (Tawara Kizaemon)

Tawara Kizaemon was a Kanô school painter in service to Tsushima domain. In 1711, he headed a team that produced a set of scrolls depicting that year's Korean embassy to Edo in procession.

Kizaemon became a goyô eshi (court painter) in service to the Sô clan of Tsushima in 1695. Over the following decade, he spent time in Edo, Tsushima, and Korea. In 1707, he was granted permission by the domain to take time off from his service to study painting under Kanô Tsunenobu for three years; he remained with Tsunenobu until 1711/2, before returning to Tsushima's service.

Borrowing a set of 1710 scrolls from the Shimazu clan depicting that year's Ryukyuan embassy to Edo to use as models, Tawara headed a team of some forty painters to produce scrolls depicting the 1711 Korean embassy in procession along the road, up to and down from Edo castle, entering and departing from Edo, and on riverboats along the Yodo River, among other contexts.

References

• Tashiro Kazui, "Chôsen tsûshinshi gyôretsu emaki no kenkyû," Chôsen gakuhô 137 (1990), 26-28.