early life and education gion nankai, originally gion yu, was a japanese confucianist, author, and painter in the nanga style. born in 1677 in edo (present-day tokyo), he was the eldest son of gion jun’an, a doctor who served the kishū domain of the tokugawa clan. artistic career at the age of thirteen, gion nankai began to receive instruction from the confucianist kinoshita jun'an and became attached to the group of ten disciples that included arai hakuseki and muro kyūsō. he established himself as a teacher of confucianism in 1713, but was expelled from his teaching position for misconduct…