1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Yōsai

YŌSAI [Kikuchi] (1781–1878), Japanese painter, was the son of a samurai named Kawara, of Yedo. He was adopted by the Kikuchi family, who were old hereditary retainers of the Tokugawa clan. When eighteen, he became a pupil of Takata Enjō; but, after studying the principles of the Kanō, Shijō, and Maruyama schools—in the latter, perhaps, under Ozui, a son of Ōkyo—he developed an independent style, having some affinities with that of Tani Bunchō. He was one of the last great painters of Japan; and his illustrated history of Japanese heroes, the Zenken Kojitsu, is a remarkable specimen of his power as a draughtsman in black and white.