Denzen Aōdō
1748 – June 25, 1822 was a Japanese painter and copperplate engraver. A leading figure in Japanese painting during the late Edo period, he is credited with introducing Western painting to Japan.
Also recorded as Nagata · Aōdō Denzen · Denzen Aeudoo · Zenkichi
Denzen Aōdō
遠藤田一 · Public domain
- Name
- Aōdō Denzen
- Birth Name
- Zenkichi Nagata
- Born
- c. 1748
- Birthplace
- Sukagawa, Mutsu Province, Japan
- Died
- 25 June 1822
- Occupation
- Painter, copperplate engraver
- Nationality
- Japan
- Fields
- Yōga
- Teachers
- Gessen
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Documentary connections
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q4067900 · wikipedia · Aōdō Denzen
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The documentary record
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Institutions cited
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek · Getty Union List of Artist Names
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Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Aōdō Denzen • Native Name — 亜欧堂 田善 • Other Names — Aeudoo Denzento • Birth Name — Zenkichi Nagata • Born — c. 1748 • Birthplace — Sukagawa, Mutsu Province, Japan • Died — 25 June 1822 • Occupation — Painter, copperplate engraver • Relatives — Eiji Tsuburaya (descendant)
Documentary record
Denzen Aōdō was a painter, printmaker, copperplate engraver and etcher, born in 1748 in Sukagawa and died in 1822. Both events are recorded by the Getty Union List of Artist Names.
Early life
Early life
Aōdō was born Zenkichi Nagata in 1748 in Sukagawa, Mutsu Province (now Fukushima Prefecture), Japan. He was the second son of Sōshirō Nagata, a wealthy farm implement dealer. Upon the death of his father, he helped his older brother, Jokichi, who was a dyer, for a long time. Jokichi had a penchant for painting, and while working in the family business, Zenkichi learned painting from him.
Painting career
Painting career
In his painting career, Aōdō employed Western-style painting techniques such as perspective and shading to achieve Western-style copperplate engraving. Adding Edo customs to Shiba Kokan's Western-style landscape paintings, he discovered new landscapes and perfected Western-style landscape copperplate engravings.
Legacy
Sadaki Ota's Aōdō Denzen Collection, owned by the Sukagawa museum, was declared an important culturally significant in 1986. In 2001, Eiji Tsuburaya biographers cited Aōdō as an ancestor of Tsuburaya, claiming Tsuburaya inherited Aōdō's dexterity.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Aōdō Denzen, revision 1366048116 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Prints
4,138 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Debra WeierEngraver
- Demetrios GalanisEngraver
- Denise CoplandEngraver
- Denise DuchateauEngraver
- Derek Michael BesantEngraver
- Desiderio Hernández XochitiotzinEngraver
- Désiré AcketEngraver
- Dhuwarrwarr MarikaEngraver
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