Japan: One of a pair of screens titled 'Pine and Plum by Moonlight' (c. 1600),...

Kaiho Yusho (1533 - 1615) was a Japanese painter of the Azuchi-Momoyama period. He was born in Omi province, the fifth son of Kaiho Tsunachika, who was a vassal of Azai Nagamasa. At an early age he became a page at the Tofuku-ji (temple) in Kyoto and, later a lay priest. He served there under the abbot and associated with the leading Zen priests of Kyoto. In his forties, Yusho turned to painting and became a pupil in the Kano School, either under the famous Kano Motonobu or his grandson Kano Eitoku. Then, he worked at Jurakudai, under the patronage of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the Emperor Go-Yozei. At first, he patterned his work after Sung painter Liang K'ai, doing only monochrome ink paintings, using a 'reduced brush stroke' ("gempitsu"), relying more on ink washes than sharp hard strokes. Later, he worked in fashionable rich colors and gold leaf. Artistically on a level with Hasegawa Tohaku and Kano Eitoku, he gave his name Kaiho to the style of painting he and his followers practiced.