Gen Iryo (源惟良)
Iryo GEN (male, years of birth and death unknown) was a tenkokuka (artist of seal engraving) in the mid-Edo period.
His azana (adult male's nickname) was Kenya and his pseudonyms were Togaku and Rokuseki. His popular name was Reizo MORI. He temporarily used the family name of Ito. He was from Kyoto.
Brief biography
He loved to study and was good at writing. While he enjoyed seal engraving, he began to learn under Fuyo KO, and finally went to the heart of it, then became a high-caliber disciple. When Fuyo died, he collected the kodoin (a kind of seal) which Fuyo possessed, and made a hundred copies of "Fuyo Sanbo Shiinpu" to distribute them to related parties. Also, at the time of the thirteenth anniversary of Fuyo's death, he and Ennen YO asked the disciples of Fuyo across the nation to collect the seals of famous families and made "Kofuyo Tsuizen Inpu" with the 68 seals.
He was a heavy drinker. There is an episode that he accidentally fell in a river without realizing it, and when he woke up in the next morning, he was hanging on a pine tree branch. After the Great Fire of the Temmei period in 1788, he visited Denhitsuki and toured around Yamada, Ise Province. He taught seal engraving to Kakuan OMATA who was at the age of 24 then.
Inpu (compilation of seal marks)
"Togakukenya-dojin Inpu"
Editing
"Fuyo Sanbo Shiinpu"
"Kofuyo Tsuizen Inpu"