Tanabe Gengen (田辺玄々)
Gengen TANABE (a male, 1796 - January 21, 1859) was a calligrapher and Tenkoku artist (a carver who carved Chinese characters in the special, Tensho, style) who lived in Japan in the latter half of the Edo period.
His name was Hironori or Nori. He was also called Hakuhyo, and used Joshochikukeien (尚松竹楓園) or Higashitai (東田居) in addition to Gengen as the title for his profession. He was commonly called Hida. He came from Kyoto.
Summary of his personal history
He was born into a rich family in Yamabuki-cho, outside To-ji Temple. He liked calligraphy and paintings from his childhood. He learned calligraphy from Totoan TAKEMOTO, and was also bestowed Kukai's calligraphic method on by Koyasan Kukyo. He studied painting under Chikuto NAKABAYASHI. He was good at carving Tensho-style Chinese characters and devoted his life in his middle ages and later at creating Jiin (the china on which a seal pattern was carved). He developed a Jiin-generating method in which clay was used to make chusiki (the portion of a jiin to be grasped by a hand) and Chinese characters for a seal) were carved on it and was baked. The level of its exquisiteness was admired. He served To-ji Temple as a konin (who lived and worked there) and awarded Hogen (the second highest rank in the hierarchy of Buddhist priests). He was intimate with first-grade literary persons at that time, such as Sanyo RAI, Mokubei AOKI and Unge, a priest. He died at the age of 66. He was buried at Nanbu-Kozuka (located in Karahashi, Minami Ward, Kyoto City).
Books he wrote
Inpu (a compilation of seal marks)
"Gengen Shi Inpu," two books in a chitsu (a container to keep books made of Japanese papers in it), in 1831.
"Shugyoku Inpu"