Ethnographic works of Kawahara Keiga: agriculture, fishing and hunting

Abstract

This article is devoted to research of some ethnographical pictures of the Japanese artist Kawahara Keiga. Keiga was an artist of the Nagasaki art school. He learned European art technique and his works combine features of Japanese and European art traditions and great attention to detail. That’s why they have great importance as a source of 19th century Japanese ethnography. During the isolation of Japan from the outworld the only place, where Europeans were allowed to stay, was the tiny island of Dezima in Nagasaki. With the help of Kawahara Keiga Europeans could get the information about the life and culture of Japanese. In this article the author examines the ethnographic works of Kawahara Keiga devoted to Japanese agriculture, fishing and hunting. Detailed ethnographical descriptions are given to each scene. Refs 16.