Born Koga, Ibaraki Prefecture, 1837; Died Saitama Prefecture, 1913

Okuhara Seiko embraced China’s literati tradition, which emphasized personal development through the study of calligraphy, painting, history, poetry, and martial arts. The BMA collection houses one of her Chinese-style ink paintings: Ink Peonies (BMA 2021.65). This work includes a poem written in archaic seal-script calligraphy as well as a seal carved by the artist. Created in the last year of Seiko’s life, the painting features a highly animated surface, which displays her control of ink tonality—from deep black to palest ink wash—as well as her command of varied brushwork, from thin, elegant lines to angular strokes.

The daughter of a high-ranking samurai of the Ikeda clan in Koga, she was named Setsuko at birth. She could not, as a girl, be trained in traditional artists’ studios so instead received instruction from private artists and scholars. At age 28, she wished to move to Edo (now Tokyo) to begin a career as an artist; however, laws in Koga forbade women from leaving the clan lands. Setsuko arranged to be adopted by a maternal (Okuhara) aunt in neighboring Chiba, which did not restrict women’s travel.

Shortly after arriving in Edo, around 1865, Setsuko changed her name to Seiko, which means “clear lake” in Japanese and gives no indication of gender. Seiko had a sturdy appearance, wore men’s clothes, and adopted a short hairstyle. The artist achieved enormous success between 1865 and 1891. In the early 1870s, she opened a painting school at her residence with a dormitory for girls, including geishas; boys lived elsewhere. As many as 300 students attended the school. Seiko was the first female artist to have an audience with the empress of Japan; however, at one of these visits, the court ladies-in-waiting mocked Seiko, asking if she was a woman or a man. After this incident, Seiko refused court invitations, though the episode made her famous.

In Tokyo’s rapidly changing culture of the 1890s, Seiko’s work was increasingly seen as old-fashioned. In 1891, the artist chose to retire with her companion of 40 years, Watanabe Seiran, to a village in Saitama Prefecture, where she lived as a hermit–recluse and continued to paint.