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Mori Sosen 森狙仙
Mori Sosen (1747–1821) emerged in the wake of Maruyama Ōkyo’s popularity in the Kyoto area and strategically transformed himself into a specialist of monkey paintings. Sosen is associated with the Maruyama-Shijō school, and he was an unrivaled master at the virtuosic rendering of fur and of animal pelts. He became so closely associated with monkey painting that on his sixtieth birthday he actually changed a character of his name to mean “monkey” instead of “ancestor.” He is, therefore, the monkey painter of Japan.