Kitaoji Rosanjin

Kitaōji Rosanjin
Rosanjin in 1954
Born	Kitaōji Fusajirō (1883-03-23)March 23, 1883 Kyoto, Japan
Died	December 21, 1959(1959-12-21) (aged 76) Yokohama, Japan
Resting place	Saihō-ji, Kyoto, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Known for	Ceramics, Calligraphy, Lacquerware, Epicure
Awards	Order of Culture

Kitaōji Rosanjin (北大路 魯山人, March 23, 1883 – December 21, 1959) was the pseudonym for a noted artist and epicure during the early to mid-Shōwa period of Japan. His real name was Kitaōji Fusajirō (北大路 房次郎), but he is best known by his artistic name, Rosanjin. A man of many talents, Rosanjin was also a calligrapher, ceramicist, engraver, painter, lacquer artist and restaurateur.

Rosanjin was born in what is now part of Kita-ku, Kyoto, as the younger son of the head priest of Kamigamo Shrine. At the age of six, he was apprenticed to (and adopted by) Fukuda Takeshi, a Kyoto woodblock engraver, after his father committed suicide on finding out that the child was not his own son. At the age of ten, while still in elementary school, he was also working at a local Chinese herbalist. In 1903, Rosanjin moved to Tokyo with the intent of studying Japanese calligraphy, winning first prize in a contest by the Japan Art Academy the following year. In 1905, he was accepted as an apprentice by noted calligrapher Okamoto Ippei, who sent him to northern China from 1908-1910 to study calligraphy and the art of Seal cutting.

In 1915, Rosanjin moved to Kyoto and Kanazawa, where he first began experimenting with decorated ceramics and developing his aesthetic theories on the relationship between food and the design of the ceramics on which it was served. In 1919, he returned to Tokyo, where he opened an art gallery and in 1920 he founded the Bishoku Club (Gourmet's Club) on the second floor of his gallery, where he began serving food on his collection of traditional ceramics. In 1925, the restaurant moved to the Nagatachō neighborhood of Tokyo, where it was renamed the Hoshigaoka-saryo.