Saru Gallery
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Biography Bunchô Tani 文晁 谷 (1763 - 1840)

Tani Bunchō was born as Tani Masayasu in a priviliged Edō samurai family. His father was a poet. Bunchō was in the service of Matsudaira Sadanobu, head of the Tokugawa government from 1787-1793, who gave him many painting commissions, and in whose service he travelled through Japan.
He first studied Kanō painting at a young age with Katō Bunrei, then the Nanga style under Watanabe Gentai, Kitayama Kangan and Kushiro Unsen. During his travels he met the patron Kimura Kenkadō, who became a life-long friend. Through him he met many artists from the Kansai area, including Uragami Gyokudō and Yamamoto Baiitsu. He studied many other styles of painting then current in Japan, including the Chinese and the Western style. His work is widely eclectic, and brought him many friends, fans and pupils. In the end he was mainly known as a Nanga artist, who brought the literati style style from Kyoto and Osaka to the capital.
In the last two decades of his career his work gradually declined in quality under the continuous demand for his work.

Bunchō was also a prolific writer on painting history and theory. Two of his best-known books are Honchō Gasan, A Compilation of Japanese painting and Bunchō Gadan, Buncho Conversations on paintings.
He was known for his capacity for hard work, vast ambition and vast social network. Tani Bunchō was of one of the most important painters of his time, and he had tremendous influence on his contemporaries.
Some well-known followers are: Araki Kanpo and Araki Kankai. He died in 1840.

References:
Araki, Tsune (ed), Dai Nihon shôga meika taikan, Tokyo 1975 (1934), pp. 204-225
Roberts, Laurance P., A Dictionary of Japanese artists, New York, 1976, p.10