Nampo Joshi: Reconstructing the Life of the Woman Artist Behind Whistler’s Old Battersea Bridge

This paper investigates the identity and circumstances of Nampo Joshi (南芳女史) (Ōzawa Nampo 大澤南芳, b. 1845; born Takei Tsuru), the woman artist who painted the kachō-ga (bird-and-flower painting) affixed to the reverse of James McNeill Whistler’s Blue and Silver: Old Battersea Bridge (1871/1873, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow). Completed in 1867, as the Edo period ended, Nampo’s work reached Europe with remarkable speed, raising the question of how a painting by a Japanese woman came into Whistler’s possession. Few historical documents directly pertaining to Nampo survive. However, she was the wife of the painter Ōzawa Nankoku (大澤南谷, 1844–?), and a systematic examination of records related to him—land registers, official gazettes, periodicals, exhibition catalogues, and diaries—reveals that the couple established themselves in Nihonbashi, the commercial centre of Tokyo. This broader archival investigation reconstructs who Nampo was: the socio-economic standing she and her husband achieved and the ways in which they extended their endeavours well beyond the traditional boundaries of their craft—participating energetically in the civic life of the new capital, in the exhibition culture of the Meiji period, and in educational and philanthropic activities. Crucially, the study demonstrates that masters deeply involved in Rangaku (Dutch Studies) networks advocating Japan’s opening to the world trained both artists and argues that this progressive intellectual milieu may provide essential context for understanding the swift acceptance of Nampo’s work in Europe.