Okuhara Seiko

[4] They moved to Edo, around 1865, where they taught painting and lived in their later years with their companion (presumably partner) and student, Watanabe Seiran (1855-1918).

[7] Seiko retired from the capital and continued their active life of painting, traveling and poetry from a countryside villa in Kumagaya.

[8] Seiko is notable for their established and well-recognized career during the Meiji period, as well as their reputation within the primarily male literati school.

Seiko was also noted for wearing masculine clothing and short hair, deliberately eschewing a feminine persona.

Historians have suggested that this is not due to a dearth in practicing female artists, which began to be more widely accepted in the 18th century, among the daughters of the gentry.

[13] During Japan at the time, learning through imitation in order to best achieve personal style and expression was reflective of the literati culture.

In 1907, Okuhara Seiko designed Beauty by Plum and Window,[14] a unique scroll that implements both painted images as well as poetic calligraphic writing in the Chinese language.