Nagasawa Rosetsu

Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754-1799) was a Japanese painter of the Edo period, associated with the Maruyama School. He is valued for the versatility of his style, and his work, though his life was short, is held today by numerous museums around the world.

According to the most credible accounts, he was born into the family of a low-ranking samurai in the area of present-day Kyoto Prefecture, and he took the surname Nagasawa once he had established himself as an artist. In 1781 he moved to Kyoto to study with Maruyama Ōkyo. His early works follow his master's style closely, though critics agree that his skill soon surpassed it. After a falling out with Ōkyo he left the school, working under the patronage of the feudal lord of Yodo and accepting commissions from several temples.

His paintings fall into two clearly distinct groups: those of carefully studied finish and, by far the larger number, those made in a few minutes of intense activity. In his night landscapes and pine trees, the moon is left white while the sky, mountains and trees are built up with gradations of India ink, a technique reminiscent of earlier Zen painting. His work was widely forged in the Meiji period. His fusuma panels of a tiger and a dragon, both from 1786, are among the works attributed to him that survive.

Rosetsu died in 1799, probably in violent circumstances: he was said to have been poisoned, though others claim he took his own life. He left an adopted pupil, Nagasawa Roshū, who carried on the workshop tradition under the same name.