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Hanabusa Itchō 英一蝶
Hanabusa Itchō (1652–1724) was born in Kyoto as the son of a prominent physician. He was a calligrapher and haiku poet as well as a painter who briefly trained in the Kano School under Kano Yasunobu. He had already become a celebrated painter in Edo when at the age of forty-seven he was involved in a scandal at the shogun’s castle. He was banished from the capital and exiled to the remote island of Miyakejima (over one hundred miles southeast of Edo). After eleven years, he was pardoned and returned to the city. He encountered a butterfly on the ship on his way back and decided to rename himself “Itchō,” which means “one butterfly.” Back in Edo, he opened his own school and regained his former prominence while training pupils.