Japan: 'Portraits and Poems of the Thirty-six Poetic Immortals'. Album of thirty-six paintings and poems by Sumiyoshi Gukei (1631-1705). Sumiyoshi Gukei (1631 - April 23, 1705), born Sumiyoshi Hirozumi, was a Japanese painter from Kyoto. He became the first official painter of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate, and was a Yamato-e artist, a painting technique based on traditional Japanese subjects and culture.