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University of Glasgow.
Bairei (1844-1895) was one of the leading practitioners of the ukiyo-e school
devoted to pictures of birds and flowers (kacho-ga) in the Meiji period.
He was born and lived in Kyoto, the old Imperial capital of Japan, and was
originally named Yasuda Bairei. Unlike many other ukiyo-e artists, he was
trained as a classical Japanese painter, studying with a number of masters of
various classical painting styles, and apparently did woodblock prints as more
of a sideline.
As a child Bairei studied with the Maruyama-school painter Nakajima Raisho, and
in his late twenties with the Shijo-school painter Shiokawa Bunrin. He also
studied with Nanga-school painters.
A leader in Kyoto art circles, he was devoted to teaching, and was instrumental
in the founding of the Kyoto Prefectural School of Painting. After the school
was underway, he opened a studio and took in students, and was important as a
teacher of some gifted pupils.
He produced a number of series of prints and illustrated books, mostly on the
subject of kachoga, of which probably the best, and certainly the most
well-known, is 'Bairei kacho gafu' ('Bairei's Album of Flowers and Birds'),
first published in Meiji 16 (1883). The designs are representations of pairs of
birds and flowers in the four seasons. They often found bound into volumes;
either as four separate volumes, or two volumes for spring/summer and
autumn/winter. The publisher was Okura Magobei, and there were four different
engravers. There was also a second, posthumous edition published in 1899.
Another series, "One Hundred Flowering Plants" was published poshumously, in
1901.
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