Three Rabbits, 1892
Maruyama Okyo (1733-1795) was born in Kyoto into a farming family. At an early age she showed a talent for drawing so his parents, after having trying unsuccessfully to have him become a monk, apprenticed him first to a clothing shop in Kyoto and then to a toymaker there. For the toymaker he painted dolls. Eventually, Okyo worked for a cosmetics shop for which he designed accessories, and it was at the instigation of the shop’s customers that he undertook formal training as a painter.
He became a student of the Kano painting school in Kyoto and grew to fame for his depiction of natural subjects in Chinese influenced style. He was also influenced from the Western engravings that he had seen in Nagasaki.