Matsushita Useki (松下烏石)
Useki MATSUSHITA (male, 1698-October 1779) was a Japanese calligrapher in the middle of the Edo period.
His name was 辰, azana (adult male's nickname) were 君岳, 神力 and 龍仲. His second names or aliases included 菽竇処士, 青蘿主人, 東海陳人 and 白玉斎, in addition to Useki. He used 葛 as his Chinese style name, and called himself as 葛烏石 or 葛辰. He was from Edo.
Brief biography
Born as the second son of Tsunechika MATSUSHITA, a vassal of the shogun. He learned calligraphy under Genryo and Bunzan SASAKI and taught his shoho (calligraphy) to Tenju KAN, who later became his disciple. His shoho was karayo style which incorporated the line of Ouyang Xun. Also, he learned Chinese poetry from Nankaku HATTORI. He used to live in Furukawa, Edo, and then moved to Kyoto during the period of Meiwa era and in his later years, he spent his days as a guest in the Nishi Hongan-ji Temple. He is famous for having donated a genuine stone with crow patterns on its surface to Iwai-jinja Shrine (Omori, Ota Ward, Tokyo [Ota Ward]). The stone was called 'Useki' and became popular, and many literary men visited to see it. He published many copybooks printed from the works of old masters of calligraphy including "消間印譜."