Yashima Gakutei

Gakutei (Yashima Gakutei) was a Japanese artist and poet of the ukiyo-e tradition, active mainly in Osaka. A pupil of both Totoya Hokkei and Katsushika Hokusai, he is remembered above all for his surimono, privately commissioned woodblock prints, and for his humorous kyōka poetry. He was born around 1786, though his exact year of birth is uncertain. His death is given as 1855 in some sources and as 1868 in others.

He was the illegitimate son of a samurai who served the Tokugawa shogunate, and his mother later married into the Yashima family, which gave the artist his name. Beyond surimono, he illustrated books, and in these he produced landscapes and seascapes, a rare choice among Hokusai's pupils. He was praised for his technical precision and his skill in embossing, and his specialization in surimono is considered to have surpassed that of his teacher Hokkei. His works include a set of five prints of young women playing gagaku, the court music of the Heian period, with the sho, ryuteki, koto, biwa and tsuri-daiko. He also illustrated the book Kyoka Suikoden and produced a Japanese translation of Journey to the West, for which he made the illustrations.