Kawahara Keiga was a Japanese painter born in 1786 or 1787 in Nagasaki. In late Edo period, Japanese was banned accessing entry Dejima. As one of the few Japanese artists who were allowed to freely access there, Keiga made countless works according to the request of the Dutch Factory on Dejima.
Philipp Franz von Siebold was dispatched to Japan to serve as a physician in the Factory, he in particular recognized Keiga’s talents and commissioned him to make works depicting a lot of Japanese botanicals, the local lifestyle, customs and natural environment that were useful to him in his study of Japan.
Keiga’s botanical drawings have incorporated various styles and techniques from Western Europe and Japan. Siebold brought back to Holland the works by Keiga and also by the other Japanese painters. After Siebold passed away, among these approximately 1,000 works of his collection was moved to Russian Academy of Sciences Library in St. Petersburg where the high lights are the botanical drawings by Keiga.
This exhibition presents 125 of Kawahara Keiga’s botanical drawings from the former Siebold collection that came back to Japan after 150 years. And also the prestigious works by Keiga form the Japanese collections are presented.
Kawahara Keiga was called “The eyes of Siebold.” What did he watch? How did he draw it? We introduce these matters through this exhibition.