Gion Nankai
early life and education gion nankai, originally gion yu, was a japanese confucianist, author, and painter in the nanga style. born in 1677 in edo (present-day tokyo), he was the eldest son of gion jun’an, a doctor who served the kishū domain of the tokugawa clan. artistic career at the age of thirteen, gion nankai began to receive instruction from the confucianist kinoshita jun'an and became attached to the group of ten disciples that included arai hakuseki and muro kyūsō. he established himself as a teacher of confucianism in 1713, but was expelled from his teaching position for misconduct…
The Subject Atlas
A chart of Gion Nankai's corpus mapped not by date but by subject. Spokes are what they painted; rings are when; and the threads between stars reveal the patrons and places that secretly connect them.
Spokes — Subject
Each arm of the atlas gathers works by what they depict: portraits, sacred scenes, mythologies, and the scientific studies. Click a spoke to swing that cluster to the top.
Rings — Career Period
Distance from the center marks time. The innermost ring is the earliest period; the outermost, the final years. Style matures as you move outward.
Threads — Shared Context
Coloured lines link works bound by the same patron, commission, or theme. Trace a context to watch related clusters light up across subjects.