Ikeda Terukata 池田輝方 (1883-1921)

The artist in 19031

Born in Kobiki-cho, Tokyo, with the given name Ikeda Seishiro, he was the son of a joiner.  He studied Japanese style painting with Mizuno Toshikata (1866-1908), who gave him the name Terukata, and then with Kawai Gyokudō (1873-1957).  Terukata became engaged to the artist Sakakibara Shōen (1886-1917), who took the surname Ikeda after marriage, and was also a student of Toshikata.  Soon after the engagement, Terukata disappeared from Toshikata’s studio for about five years, during which time he designed kuchi-e, bijin-ga, and triptychs of Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) battles.  He reappeared for Toshikata’s funeral in 1908.  He was a friend of Kaburaki Kiyokata (1878-1972) and formed the Ugōkai2 (Cormorant Society) in 1901 with Yamanaka Kodō (1869-1945) and Hirezaki Eihō (1881-1968). Terukata exhibited and won prizes at the Bunten, the annual Ministry of Education art exhibition.3  Many of his prints were published by Akiyama Buemon. Terukata was the teacher of the Japan-based French ukiyo-e artist Paul

Jacoulet (1902-1960).  After the death of his wife Ikeda Shōen in 1917 he became a heavy drinker, and the quality of his work deteriorated.  He died of tuberculosis in May 1921.