Uragami Gyokudō
Japanese, 1745 - 1820
Person TypeIndividual
BiographyUragami Gyokudo is considered one of the most eccentric of literati painters, for his powerfully appealing, idiosyncratic paintings as well as his unconventional life. He abandoned his prestigious samurai-officer's position after middle age to become a freelance traveling painter whose patrons were rich, educated provincial merchants and farmers. It was a radical and irrevocable decision in the fixed-class society of the Edo period.