The Great Artist Kanyei Izumigawa

Ryukyu Kingdom Painter 寛永 or 寛英

There are quite a few artists in my family but I was shocked when I learned that my ancestor was a royal painter and has paintings hanging in the Okinawa Prefectural Museum. Actually only a few paintings have survived WWII and Shuri Castle burnings.

The Great Artist’s 5th great grandchildren visiting Shuri Castle 2009, before it burned to the ground in 2019

The Great Artist, Kanyei Izumigawa 泉川 寛英 was born in Shuri on November 21, 1767 (Meiwa 4, Tangen Shin Shin 9) to Kaniku and Shido Izumigawa 思戸. He lived to 1844.

Kanyei became a painter at the age of 19, in 1785, and worked actively as a painter under King Shō Kō, the 17th king of the Second Shō Dynasty of the Ryūkyū Kingdom. Excelling in landscape, flowers and bird paintings, Kanyei assisted with royal portraits painted after a king’s death (ogoe).

Naha Tug of War by Kanyei Izumigawa

• “Naha Tug of War” (p. 286–291) — A work at the age of 63, originally drawn for the Satsuma clan . A picture of Yoshitaro Kamakura’s photograph was exhibited at the Okinawa Ocean Expo on a giant panel of 7 meters in length and 14 meters in width, and it was highly appreciated [1]Izumikawa Kan’ei 泉川寛英（Shin Shikyū 慎思丸）1767–1844, a painter for the Keezui bujôju.