Otake Chikuha

was a Japanese painter. He was first known for his nihonga and ukiyo-e paintings. Although he was a praised figure at the height of his career, he later lost his reputation. He moved onto experimenting with more ambitious styles motivated by his anti-mainstream sentiments.

Early life Chikuha was born in Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture as Somekichi in 1878. His father Otake Kuramatsu was a dyer, who also painted under the name Otake Kokuseki. His two brothers, Etsudo and Kokkan both became proliferate painters, and the three of them came to be known as the Otake Brothers.

Career At the age of four, he learned nanga under Sasada Unseki, and received the pseudonym Chikuha. In 1891, he moved to Toyama where his older brother, Etsudo lived at the time. To make a living, he started working on images for newspapers, and preliminary sketches for medicine advertisements. In 1896, he moved to Tokyo following his younger brother Kokkan who left three years earlier, and became a disciple of Kawabata Gyokusho. He also learned yamato-e techniques of portraiture from Kobori Tomoto, bird-and-flower painting from Kajita Hanko, Kano school line drawing from Hashimoto Gaho.

He started sending his works to Kyoshinkai, biennial exhibitions hosted by Nihon Kaiga Kyokai and Inten hosted by Nihon Bijutsuin. Both of these institutions were led by Okakura Tenshin, an influential figure in developing Japanese modern art institutions. Through these submissions and subsequent attention by Tenshin, Chikuha made himself known in the field. However, in 1908, due to political differences among artist groups and movements, Chikuha left Tenshin in anger.

Works His works are in stored in many Japanese museums, including National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (Otodure (The Visit)), the Miyagi Museum of Art (Tsuki no Uruoi / Taiyo no Netsu / Hoshi no Tsumetasa). In particular, the Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art owns more than twenty works including Aogiri.

In the United States, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Akan Genshirin (Akan Primeval Forest)) and Philadelphia Museum of Art (Rakujo (Fall of a Castle)) possess his works.