( fl c. 1596-1610). He is thought to have lived in the merchant city of Sakai (Osaka Prefect.) and may have been the son or student of Shosho, the last Soga painter from Echizen Province. Shosho's patrons, the Asakura clan, were destroyed by Oda Nobunaga in 1573. A lineage chart drawn up by Chokuan's son Nichokuan ( fl c. 1625-60) claims that Chokuan was a descendant of Soga Jasoku, an artist's name (go) in fact used by several generations of Echizen Soga artists. Chokuan painted screens (byobu) for temples in the Kansai area and on Mt Koya (Wakayama Prefect.), including Shiki niwatorizu ('Chickens in the four seasons'; Tokyo, N. Mus.) and Shozan shiko kokei sanshozu ('The three laughters of Tiger Valley and the four sages of Mt Shang'; Mt Koya, Reihokan). The detailed, sober style of these screens, which recalls that of KANO SCHOOL artists in the 1560s and 1570s, suggests that Chokuan painted them early in his career. The stylistic peculiarities evident in these works have resulted in the labelling of his style as both conservative and eccentric. Chokuan is best known for his paintings of birds of prey. His depictions of hawks and eagles include violent, unsettling details, portrayed with an unusual potency of expression. Among his masterpieces of bird-of-prey painting are the pairs of screens, probably painted between 1590 and 1610, Shoo roro ('Hawks in pine and herons in reeds'; Japan, priv. col.) and Washizu ('Eagles'; Japan, priv. col.).
Part of the Soga family
See the Abbreviations for further details.
