25 Famous Female Painters in Japanese Art

by Jes Kalled | ART

Japan’s many distinguished female artists deserve much of the credit for the preeminence of Japanese painting today. Too often their contributions have been overlooked as galleries and art historians focus on their male counterparts. But there is no good reason why we shouldn’t all be more familiar with the work of these exceptional painters.

We have selected 25 of Japan’s most famous female artists, from the Edo period up to the contemporary. They are innovators, feminists and simply the best at what they do. These are painters that you need to know if you want to fully grasp the history-shaping movements of Japanese art.

And while we’re celebrating women in Japanese painting here, we have also highlighted some of the country’s most fascinating women artists working in other creative fields, such as sculpture, photography, ceramics and more. Take a look at 10 Japanese Women Artists You Really Should Know to find out more.

1. Katsushika Oi

Yoshiwara at Night by Katsushika Oi, 1840s, British Museum

It’s impossible to speak about Japanese art without spending some time reflecting on ukiyo-e, or woodblock prints, one of the country’s greatest visual art forms. Katsushika Oi is one of ukiyo-e’s quiet overachievers. Oi’s incredible artistic talent was practically guaranteed at birth, considering the fact that her father was the legendary Hokusai. Although her legacy has been a little overshadowed by her father, Oi was an incredible artist in her own right, thanks to her uncanny ability to utilize bold block coloring to capture the eye of the viewer. Her visionary attitude combined with the traditional knowledge she gained from assisting her father brought a fresh perspective to the richly historic form, and explains why she was one of the first female artists in Japan to gain wide renown for her skills.

Find out more about this fascinating artist, and enjoy her works in our article Katsushika Oi: The Hidden Hand of Hokusai’s Daughter.

2. Setsuko Migishi

Setsuko Migishi was a western style painter, a practice known as yoga, which is distinguishable from traditional Japanese nihonga style painting. Setsuko’s oil paintings consist of bright colors, adapted building landscapes, and flowers to name a few. Her husband, Kotaro, and her son Kotaro, were also oil painters. The family’s paintings are often viewed as influencing one another. Although, according to some of her diaries, their marriage was not always peaceful. Setsuko lost her husband in 1934, began a Women’s Artist Association in 1947, and moved to Burgundy, France in 1954, having decided to live as an artist. It was there where she commenced painting numerous European landscapes and architecture. The mother and son duo were foreigners in France, but Setsuko, a pioneer for women and artists, leaned in to painting and adapting her style to her location. In her diaries she expresses internal struggle, asking questions about art and its significance. Perhaps that is what we see echoed in her work, paintings of which she continued creating until the age of 94 when she passed away.

3. Fuku Akino

When Fuku Akino was 54 years old, she took a position at the Visva-Bharati University, now known as Tagore International University, in India. Moved by the motifs of the country, she began to incorporate them into her paintings of temples, landscapes and nature. Akino was a believer of the creation of art, a concept she developed as a reaction to the movement of distilling traditional Japanese arts. She did not like working solely from traditional natural Japanese elements, and instead wished to incorporate other influences and “rejuvenate” Japanese art. Thus she founded Sozo Bijutsu, known today as Sogakai; the Soga-kai Association of Japanese Painting. After her experience as a visiting professor in India, Akino visited 14 more times, taking in the scenery, specifically the intense heat and weather climate of the country and reproducing it in her work.

4. Shoen Uemura

© Shoen Uemura, Feathered Snow, 1944, Yamatane Museum of Art

The name Shoen Uemura is actually the pseudonym of Tsune Uemura, an important Kyoto based artistic figure of the Meiji and Taisho period. Her tireless study of the world of bijinga (pictures of beautiful women) greatly influenced her artistic output, inspiring her to create images that would catalyze a new evolution in bijinga painting. Thematically, Uemura’s work focused on motifs common to classic bijinga, like beautiful women and iconic figures from noh theater, but with a feminist slant: she had women recreate noh poses in roles typically reserved for men. Bold, but also respectful of the form, it’s fair to say the history of bijinga would look very different without this groundbreaking artist.

5. Ike Gyokuran

Autumnal Landscape by Ike Gyokuran, 18th Century, Met Museum

Reaching a little further back in to history of the Japanese art, Ike Gyokuran is one of the most influential and important female painters in world of classic Japanese culture. Born in 1727, Gyokuran created most of her works in Kyoto, where she is still a much lauded hometown hero. Her efforts in the world of calligraphy and poetry were very much admired, however it is her contribution to the evolution of Southern Painting that cemented her reputation. Flourishing during the Edo period, this high-end style of painting was greatly influenced by classic Chinese culture. Delicate, rhythmic and effortlessly sleek, Gyokuran’s style can still be seen on many classic Japanese items today, from folding screens and sliding doors, to fans and hanging scrolls.

6. Seien Shima

Born in Osaka in 1892, Shima Seien was a self-taught nihonga painter. Recognized at an early age for her talent and practice, she was accepted by the Bunten Exhibition when she was only 19 years old. Unlike western oil painting, which was thought of as being very masculine at that time, bijinga was an encouraged and common practice for women. Bijinga especially portrayed women in their daily lives at home. However, it was not common practice in Japanese painting, nor in the genre of bijinga, to paint one’s self portrait, like Shima did in her unfinished painting known only as “Untitled” 無題 (1918). Traditionally, bijinga emphasized conformity and unified principles of beauty. That can be seen as conspicuously absent in “Untitled,” where Shima has painted an imaginary and mysterious blue mark around her right eye.

7. Yuki Ogura

Nihonga painter, Yuki Ogura, lived to be 105 years old. Born in 1895 and passing in 2000, her works span about 80 years. Known as a traditional and yet modern nihonga painter, the depth of her range can be seen in the slight changes she made throughout the years. Having attended Nihon Bijutsu, the university founded on keeping the principles of Japanese painting alive, many of Ogura’s paintings adhere to the strict nihonga form. Slight departures from the traditional style, inspires audiences to see her as a modernist, someone who aimed to both maintain Japanese traditional art and subtly experiment with the counterpart of western influence. Her painting “Ko-chan resting” (1960) depicts a woman lying on her back, embracing leisure. Unlike the doll figures of traditional nihonga, “Ko-chan Resting” is a more natural approach. The bright red colors and the subject’s strong gaze show Ogura embarking onto new paths, perhaps reflecting the social changes for women at that time as well.

8. Tsuruko Yamazaki

Non-traditional materials such as chemicals, tin, and vinyl were just some of the tools that abstract artist Tsuruko Yamazaki used to create her colorful works. Born in Hyogo in 1925, Yamazaki would later become an active member (and only female member) of the Gutai group, a postwar collective founded in an effort to experiment with new ways of art creation and expression. Yamazaki’s own work was incredibly experimental and often transformed. Some of her early work was made through using mirrors, or casting vinyl on canvas. Her later patterns explore geometric shapes, pop art, and dye on tin. She especially enjoyed working with tin because of its malleability and reflective qualities. The artist lived to be 94, passing away last year in June of 2019.

9. Yuki Katsura

Representing both pre- and postwar Japan, Yuki Katsura was an abstract painter who worked with components of collage, oil painting, watercolor, satire and various modes of textured expression. Born as Yukiko in 1913, but later calling herself Yuki, the artist was always evolving over the course of six decades, from the 1930’s to the 1990’s. Her first solo exhibition in 1935 at age 22 was presented in the Tokyo Ginza district. This exhibition displayed her collage works, modeling her experimentations and fascination with texture. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, Yuki showcased her oil paintings in various exhibitions. It was during this time that she jumped into the foray of children’s books, creating illustrations of fabled narratives and caricatured fantasy. Throughout the 50’s, Katsura traveled around Europe, stayed in Paris, went to Central Africa, and resided in New York, meeting several artists along the way. In the years just preceding her death, Yuki fashioned several three dimensional works of red silk, shaping inanimate objects into animate looking ones; somewhere between living and not, a boundary she often wanted to explore.

10. Samizu Matsuki

Samizu Matsuki was a realistic painter, known for the creation of her own subset genre that she called Magic Realism. Her paintings, which are often portraits, are incredibly detailed. According to her, they contain a myriad of integrated practices of cubism, “the dislocation of time and space of Egyption wall painting,” among other classical and contemporary theoretical painting methods. Having spent time living in Europe and the U.S., the painter was keen on painting what she saw crumbling or growing around her. Social criticism and observation can be seen in her work, especially in sensitive subjects such as the Vietnam War or 9/11. Her own descriptions and explanations of each piece hold their own meta-space alongside the original works.

11. Ibuki Kuramochi

A dancer that paints with and on her body. Using primarily a monochrome palette, Kuramochi invokes the power of improvisation and Butoh into her strokes; some are wild, some are carefully constructed. The modern dance form of Butoh emphasizes an inward focus. Kuramochi’s exploration of this type of dance combined with her painting ability creates a tension between inward and outward being and expression. Born in Gunma in 1990, Kuramochi continues to play with the boundary between this world and the next. A self proclaimed multi-media artist, Kuramochi has performed live painting and dance around the world. In interviews with Tokyo Weekender and Japan Today, the artist reveals that she found her initial inspiration when she saw a series of paintings by Ikuo Hirayama titled Silk Road at a temple in Nara as a child.

12. Chie Fueki

“[The] present moment always looks away. Everyone knows that," said Fueki,” reads an internet archive called nwa Art Talk on Chie Fueki’s guest lecture at University of Arkansas. Fueki’s paintings focus on the surface. Her paintings summon feelings of emotional embroidery, with layers of other-worldliness. Fueki’s process begins with a sketch, some cutting, collaging, pasting and then painting. She attempts to capture fragmented spaces she inhabits onto the canvas, at times weaving cosmic significance into the mix. For her work, Nikko, Fueki uses acrylic, colored pencil, ink, and mulberry paper on wood. The sheer amount of overlapping materials seems to be a method that seeks out something fresh and new, while trying to capture a moment that has here and now; a moment that, like she’s said, is always looking away.

13. Kiyohara Tama

© Kiyohara Tama, Japanese Landscape, 1880

In 1882 when Kiyohara was just 21 years old, her family moved to the Sicilian city of Palermo with the sculptor Vincenso Ragusa. Although her parents eventually returned home to Japan, Kiyohara remained in Italy, married Ragusa, and took on the name Eleonora. The artist was known for her watercolor still-lifes of flowers, people, and landscapes. Thanks to a novel series based on her life story, she became quite famous in Japan. She returned to her home country in 1927, despite barely being able to speak Japanese, but attempting to bridge the gap nonetheless. In her painting “Japanese Landscape” (1880), one can note the hybrid of eastern and western references she was already digesting with her study. The subjects are wearing kimono styled clothing, but the painting possesses western styled soft pastels. Many of her paintings were destroyed in Japan during World War II, although the works that remained in Italy were left unharmed. Befitting her life and legacy, half of her ashes are in Japan, and the other half with her husband in Italy.

14. Chieko Takamura

Chieko Takamura was an oil painter, and a feminist. After leaving what is now Fukushima, and moving to Tokyo to attend university, Takamura joined the feminist movement called Seitousha (Japanese Bluestocking Society). The group self-produced a literary magazine in 1911 called Seito (Bluestocking) which published short stories and poems relevant to womens’ issues of that time. Takamura drew the cover of their first issue. The feminist publication was eventually banned by the government for “disrupting society.” Takamura established herself as a yoga painter with her use of oils, but she also used other materials and methods, such as cutting paper to create cut outs and collages. Her husband, also an artist, wrote about her in a series of poems, titled The Chieko Poems which are still adored today.

15. Rin Yamashita

Although it’s difficult to determine a Rin Yamashita painting due to her lack of signature, about 40 churches in Japan have been identified as having her work. Yamashita began her painting study with ukiyo-e, but soon made the switch to yoga. While studying at the Kobu Bijutsu Gakko under Atonio Fontanesi, she converted to Orthodox Christianity, her interests aligning with Italian-esque style depictions of religious figures. A school friend later introduced her to Nikolai, a Russian priest and central figure in the history of relations between Russia and Japan. Per his suggestion, Yamashita boarded a ship to Russia in order to further study icon painting at a nunnery in 1880. A few years later she returned to Japan and continued her work for the Japanese Orthodox Church. “During the whole period of her creative work the artistic style of Rin’s icon-painting did not undergo change.” Says Michael V. Uspensky in his publication titled, An Orthodox Icon by Yamashita Rin - The Japanese Painter of the Meiji Period.

16. Fuyuko Matsui

© Fuyuko Matsui, Scattered Deformities in the End, 2007

Known for being inspired by traditional Japanese art techniques and devoted to expressing what it means to be human, Fuyuko Matsui practices what some call new nihonga with her paintings featuring women. Some of her work pulls from century-old stories, but with adapted modern twists that seek to explore her own reality with psychosis, and trauma. Matsui states that she can only draw from a woman’s experience because she is a woman, and thus auteuristically paints about feelings and encounters that she has knowledge of. Her inquiry into the self, combined with her nihonga sensibilities is exemplified in the Becoming Friends With All the Children in the World exhibition where a close look at pain, and even horror, invites us to think also of hope.

17. Keiko Minami

The soft and at times slightly dark aesthetic of Keiko Minami became well known among art lovers around the world. Minami was a painter, engraver, and etcher among other creative mediums. Some of her prints can be found on greeting cards which were distributed by UNICEF and the MoMA. Influenced by the magical nuance of children’s stories and poetry, a lot of Minami’s work consists of birds, flowers, animals and children. The gentle exposition of each piece is admired for its attention to detail and its unique storytelling-type quality. Minami spent time in Paris, and San Francisco, eventually returning home to Japan after forty years abroad.

18. Chigusa Kitani

The famous Osaka nihonga and bijinga artist, Chigusa Kitani, often placed her subjects in a historical context. As can be seen in her painting, Ongaku, beyond the appreciation of beauty is the unfolding of a story or scene. In this painting, the woman looking in at the children is thought to be a reflection of Kitani’s own mourning sentiment after losing her younger brother to illness. Dedicated to her study of painting and fostering opportunities for women, Kitani opened a women’s painting school in her house in Osaka called Yachigusa-kai. Although Kitani had studied under several tutors, even traveling to Seattle at the young age of 12, the artist seemed intent on creating pieces that celebrated and displayed elements of Osaka’s traditions, such as Bunraku (Puppet Theatre) which is portrayed in the Ongaku piece(find out What is Bunraku here).

19. Rieko Morita

© Rieko Morita, Ryugu - The Dragon Palace, 2003

One of contemporary Japan’s most prolific nihonga painters and most famous contemporary female artists, Rieko Morita has dedicated over 30 years to refining, redefining and influencing the world of nihonga. In an exclusive interview with Japan Objects, Morita spoke about how she drew inspiration from her previously undiscovered interest in the mysterious world of the maiko saying “[I]t was only a minor interest when I first started drawing them, but bit by bit I was truly taken in by the mysterious charm of the ‘walking traditional craft’ of the world of Maiko.” Today this blend of appreciation of Japanese history combined with a more modern take on nihonga painting is an excellent analogy for the country’s commonly referenced old and new aesthetic.

20. Chiho Aoshima

© Chiho Aoshima, The Fountain of the Skull, 2008, Kumi Contemporary Art

One of Japan’s most formative pop-artists, Chiho Aoshima cut her teeth under the mentorship of the international pop-culture legend Takashi Murakami. Working with Murakami as part of his Kaikai Kiki group shows, her talent and incredible eye for crafting attention commanding works saw her collaborate with some of Japan’s biggest names like Issey Miyake, as well as presenting lauded art shows across the globe. After becoming disillusioned with her studies in economics, Aoshima taught herself how to use Adobe Illustrator and from there she began producing her surreal dreamscape style, which continues to challenge the concepts of what we consider kawaii (cute) and kowai (scary).

Lovers of Japanese pop art might want to check out these 20 Best Female Manga Artists You Need to Know!

21. Tatsu Hirota

Growing up in Kyoto, Tatsu Hirota’s work was heavily influenced by more classical Japanese motifs, garnering a reputation for creating stunning images of nudes and maiko (trainee geisha). Born in 1904, Hirota’s rise to artistic stardom wasn’t an easy one: her family was poor, so her career prospects as a painter didn’t look so bright. Thankfully for lovers of Japanese art, by the age of just 12 she had steadfastly committed to the idea of pursuing painting as her life’s work. Her delicate imagery and assertive use of soft, yet bold block coloring are still emulated in works today.

22. Tamako Kataoka

© Tamako Kataoka, Auspicious Mount Fuji, 1991, Tokyo Art Club

Born in Sapporo in 1905, Tamako Kataoka is one of nihonga’s most prominent female artists. Combining traditional Japanese imagery with a more western style pop art aesthetic she helped bring traditional nihonga painting into the modern age. Some of her most famous work is her series on Mount Fuji, which saw the artist take a surrealist approach to nature painting, recreating the instantly recognizable figure in eye-catching shades of white, red, and blue.

23. Shirley Kaneda

© Shirley Kaneda, Confident Apprehension, 2013

Based in New York City, but born in Tokyo to parents of Korean nationality, Shirley Kaneda’s cultural identity is a diverse as the works she creates. Typically referred to as an abstract painter, her boldly colored, futuristic images sit somewhere between surreal digital design and psychedelic dreamscapes. Kaneda left Japan in the 1970s to further her study in the world of illustration at Parsons School of Design in New York City. Since then she’s continued to push the boundaries of form and color to craft pieces that somehow draw together disparate elements into a cohesive and though-provoking whole.

Head over to Jaw-Dropping Japanese Art Jewelry by Women Designers, to enjoy more incredible talent.

24. Leiko Ikemura

Hailing from Mie Prefecture with Japanese and Swiss heritage, Leiko Ikemura is a sculptor and painter famous for her masterful use of swirling color and pastel shades which give her work a unique dream-like ambience. As a student Ikemura left Japan to further her studies in Spain before presenting her debut show in Germany and moving to Zurich to live and continue her artistic career. This worldly history, in combination with her multi-medium pursuits make her one of the country’s most indefinable talents. In this haunting watercolor portrait, she presents her take on the iconic artist Frieda Kahlo.

25. Yayoi Kusama

Rounding out this list is the iconic Yayoi Kusama, as it’d be a crime to talk about the history of Japanese art in any shape or form without adding this fascinating and still incredibly prolific name to the list. There’s not a lot left to say about Kusama that hasn’t been parroted a thousand times over, including a few mentions here on Japan Objects! Born in Nagano in 1929, Kusama is a sculptor, installation artist, painter, and occasional writer just to reel off a little of her extensive resume. She’s so important to the country’s art scene that earlier this year a dedicated Yayoi Kusama Museum was opened in Shunjuku, Tokyo. The museum is a must-see destination and is definitely a worthy addition to any discerning Japanese art lover’s Japan literary, but be sure to book tickets in advance!

You don’t have to be in Japan to enjoy Kusama’s work: check out the 14 Best Places in the World to See Yayoi Kusama's Art!