Kawamura Kiyoo
Kawamura Kiyoo was a yōga artist in Meiji to Shōwa Japan.Life
Born in Edo in 1852, as a child he began to study under Sumiyoshi Naiki, before moving to Osaka prior to his grandfather's appointment as bugyō. Continuing his education under Tanomura Chokunyū, after returning to Edo he studied for a time with Haruki Nanmei before learning yōga from Kawakami Tōgai, in around 1868.
Initially sponsored by Katsu Kaishū, with Tokugawa support he studied political law in America in 1871, travelling the following year to France and Italy. In Venice he turned to the study of painting. Returning to Japan in 1881, he worked for the Ministry of Finance Printing Bureau before resigning over a disagreement and opening a school for painting in Kōjimachi.
In 1889 he participated in the formation of the Meiji Bijutsukai, the first domestic art association to champion western-style painting. Within a decade the association had been eclipsed by Kuroda Seiki's Hakubakai.
Kawamura Kiyoo often painted in western-style oil on traditional Japanese supports of silk and wood. He died in Tenri in 1934.
