(1) KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (1760-1849): He was adopted by the Nakajima family of Isa when he was only three years old. As an apprentice woodcut printer at 13 years of age, he began to learn drawing. At 18, he entered the workshop of Katsukawa Sunsho, a highly popular ukiyo-e artist. He began with a series of portraits of actors, which he signed Katsukawa Shunro, then he illustrated a number of books. He then changed his name to Kusamura and did commercial pieces and calendars, experimenting with various styles, sometimes signing his illustrations and surimono Sori. These images were successful and began to be imitated by other artists in the Rimpa school. In 1796, he gave the name Sori to one of his students and took the name Hokusai (Northern Studio) in homage to the Buddhist divinity Myoken, representing the North Star. From then on, he signed his work Hokusai, although he sometimes used other pseudonyms, such as Tatsumata, Raishin, and Raito, all of which evoked the seven stars of Ursa Minor. As his popularity grew, he kept drawing and painting, sometimes performing public demonstrations of his talent by painting large panels for Zen Buddhist and other temples. He became friends with the painter Bokusen and began to produce Hokusai Manga (Hokusai's drawings), published in Nagoya from 1814 to 1834. At age 60 he took the name Iitsu because he was beginning a new astrological 60-year cycle. About 1831, he produced his famous series 'Fugaku Sanjurokkei' (Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji); in 1834,at the age of 74, he produced the series 'Fugaku Hyakkei' (One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji). He then left Edo to live on the Miura Peninsula, working on another series that was to crown his career, 'Hyakunin Isshu Uba Ga Etoki' (Illustrations for the Poems of One Hundred Authors). He returned to Edo and produced few prints and drawings after 1840 and died in 1849. Published Sept. 1955

(2) TOSHUSAI SHARAKU: Toshusai Sharaku made ukiyo-e prints portraying Kabuki actors,to be used as posters. Nothing is known about his life, and he seems to have worked for only six months (under this name) producing 145 colored prints, 10 drawings of sumo wrestlers (of which only one has been found), and 8 copies of drawings for book illustrations. He may have been a Noh actor serving a daimyo in Awa province. His works were all published by Tsutaya Juzaburo. Sharaku's prints are characterized by extremely tense faces and attitudes and are printed on a micaceous background. The prints had a profound influence on the art of other painters of ukiyo-e prints, including Utagawa Kunimasa and Utagawa Toyokuni. Published Oct. 1955

(3) ANDO HIROSHIGE (1797-1858): Was born in Edo to the Tanaka samurai family, and adopted by the Ando family. He studied with Utagawa Toyokuni and Utagawa Toyohiro, taking the name Hiroshige in 1811, while his masters allowed him to take the artist's name Utagawa. His first ukiyo-e prints were not great works; he hit his stride as an artist only after 1818, with images of flowers and birds that were very popular. After 1830, the publisher Kawaguchi Shozo ordered a series of ten views of Edo, which were printed with few colors: blue, pink, touches of brown and green. Now able to earn a living with his prints, Hiroshige passed on tohis son his trade of firefighter (hikeshi) and devoted himself to art. He traveled from Edo to Kyoto and back, and was inspired to paint 'Tokaido Gojusan-tsugi' (The Fifty-Three Stages of the Tokaido), which were published in part by Takeuchi Hoeido. Hiroshige then produced other series on the same subject, which were known by the names of their publishers. In 1835, he began a series of 70 landscapes of the Kiso Kaido (of which he only completed 46 views). About 1850, he adopted a new printing format for his landscapes that was vertical instead of horizontal and produced 'Views of Sixty-nine Famous Sites', 'Maisho Edo Hyakkei', and 'Fuji Sanjurokkei' published after his death. Published Aug. 1956

(4) YOKOYAMA TAIKAN (1868-1958): Taikan was born in the Mito District in 1868, the eldest son of Sutehiko Sakai, a member of the samurai class of the Mito clan. In 1889, he entered the first graduating class of Tokyo Fine Art School (now the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music). From the very beginning, he showed great artistic potential. Taikan was extremely influential in the evolution of the Nihonga technique, having departed from the traditional use of the line drawing. Together with Hishida Shuns?, he developed a new style, eliminating the lines and concentrating on soft, blurred polychromes. While Yokoyama's works tended to remain faithful in general to the traditional Rimpa school style, he experimented with various techniques borrowed from western painting methods. However, such a cutting-edge technique was severely criticized by other traditional painters. His style was called "Mourou-tai(Blurred style)", which nowadays exactly depicts his painting's character, meant the lack of energy and vitality sarcastically. He later turned almost exclusively to monochrome ink paintings, and came to be known for his mastery of the various tones and shades of black. A number of his works have been classified as Important Cultural Property by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. In 1898, to create a new movement in Japanese arts, he set up the Nihon Bijutsuin(the Japan Arts Institute) in cooperation with Shunso Hishida, Kanzan Shimomura, and one of his teachers, Tenshin Okakura. The new style introduced novel techniques and methods and gave an innovative impetus to the Japanese art world. Over the Taisho and Showa eras, he pictured a gorgeous and decorative world following the traditional painting methods of the Rin group, but at the same time, he actively attempted a more modern style with clear tones using India ink, and adopted various Western painting methods as a means of developing his technique. Taikan was extremely influential in the evolution of the Nihonga technique, having departed from the traditional use of the line drawing. Together with Hishida Shuns?, he developed a new style, eliminating the lines and concentrating on soft, blurred polychromes. While Yokoyama's works tended to remain faithful in general to the traditional Rimpa school style, he experimented with various techniques borrowed from western painting methods. However, such a cutting-edge technique was severely criticized by other traditional painters. His style was called "Mourou-tai(Blurred style)", which nowadays exactly depicts his painting's character, meant the lack of energy and vitality sarcastically. He later turned almost exclusively to monochrome ink paintings, and came to be known for his mastery of the various tones and shades of black. A number of his works have been classified as Important Cultural Property by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. In 1937, he became the first winner of the Order of Culture. Following the tradition of Japanese painting, with its sense of color and dynamic composition, but, on the other hand, trying to take a new viewpoint, Taikan's paintings featured a variety of subjects including nature, scenery and portraits, establishing his own painting style and breathing new life into the art world of the Meiji era. Throughout his seventy-year career in painting, Taikan was always ahead of the times, always seeking new styles of paintings he felt to be authentic. He leaves us a series of masterpieces that escape being categorized into 'Japanese' or 'Western' paintings. He passed away at his house in Ueno Ikenohata, Tokyo, on February 26, 1958. It is now open to the public as the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall. Published Feb. 1956

(5) KITAGAWA UTAMARO (1753-1806): Painter of ukiyo-e prints, born in Kawagoe, died in Edo. Perhaps a son and disciple of Toriyama Sekien, an artist who was independant from the Kano school. He signed with the name Toyoaki from 1775 to 1780, then adopted the name Utamaro in 1781. At first, he worked in the style of Katsukawa Shunsho, drawing portraits of Kabuki artists; he than developed his own style, making portraits of beautiful women (bijin), which established his reputation, and erotic images, which got him sent to prison in 1804. He also wrote kyoka poems under the name Fude no Ayamaru. His prints often produced in triptychs, were admired by Westerners, who discovered them in the late nineteenth century. He was best known for his bust portraits of women, although he also excelled at portraying them in head-to-toe portraits, usually in groups of three. He attracted many disciples who imitated his style more or less successfully, including Utamaro II, Yukimaro, Shikimaro, and Hidemaro, all of whom used the family name Kitagawa in tribute to their master. It seems,however, that Utamaro's work became overvalued due to the fact that many of his prints went to Europe. When his main publisher died, Utamaro seemed to lose his inspiration, and his late prints were clearly stereotypical; some of them were probably made by his students. Published March 1956

(6) TAWARAYA SOTATSU (1570-1643): Japanese artist. With Koetsu he is credited with founding the decorative Rimpa school of Japanese painting. A painter who revived yamato-e style by augmenting its lyric quality with brilliant colors and a bold graphic sense, in 1630 Sotatsu was commissioned to illustrate the Saigyo Monogatari Emaki [Biography of the monk Saigyo] as well as to create a set of screens for the emperor. Among his most important works are the illustrated covers he painted for the Lotus Sutra which was given to the Itsukushima Shrine by the Heike family in the 12th cent. He painted subjects from Japanese and Chinese classical literature as well as landscapes. The most creative master of the decorative school, his work greatly influenced such painters as Ogata Korin.Little is known about the life and artistic career of Sotatsu. It is believed that he came from a family of well-to-do cloth merchants and that he grew up in the Kyoto area. The first fact about his life is that in 1602 he was employed to repair the famous 12th-century sutra scrolls which the Taira family had dedicated to the Itsukushima shrine. Even more significant is the fact that in 1630 the rank of hokkyo was bestowed upon him, indicating that by this time the artist must have achieved considerable fame and success. The few other references to Sotatsu suggest that he was part of a circle of influential Kyoto tea masters and esthetes and that he collaborated at various times with the famous calligrapher and lacquer artist Koetsu, who was related to him by marriage. In contrast to many other artists of the early Edo period, who painted Chinese subjects in a Chinese style, Sotatsu worked in a very Japanese manner which was based on the Yamato-e and Tosa traditions of native painting. It is significant that one of his most famous works is a copy of the 13th-century Yamato-e scroll dealing with the life of the priest Saigyo and that before this he had been engaged in repairing another celebrated example of narrative scroll painting. From these works he derived his interest in subjects taken from Japanese history and literature such as the Tale of Genji and the Ise Monogatari. When choosing landscapes for his paintings, he also selected typically Japanese ones, such as the pine-covered islands of Matsushima, rather than the Chinese scenery represented by the artists of the Kano school. Not only is Sotatsu's subject matter typically Japanese, but his style is too, for he used bright colors and gold leaf applied in flat areas, thus achieving abstract, decorative patterns of great beauty and sensitivity. Among the numerous works attributed to Sotatsu, the most remarkable is a pair of six-panel screens depicting episodes from the Tale of Genji (in the Seikado, a museum near Tokyo). Other fine paintings by Sotatsu are in the Daigoji, a temple near Kyoto, with which the artist seems to have had some sort of connection. One of the outstanding works there is a pair of two-panel screens depicting the classical Bugaku dance; another work consists of fan paintings mounted on a screen. All these works are typical for Sotatsu in their use of colorful, almost abstract decorative designs and in their dependence on the Yamato-e pictorial tradition.

(7) SUZUKI HARUNOBU (1725-1770): Known for ukiyo-e prints, his first paintings in hosoban format showed the influence of Okumura Masanobu, Ishikawa Moronobu, and the Chinese painter Qu Ying. In 1765, he was chosen by the wealthy chonin to make illustrated calendars (egoyomi), which he designed in a larger format (chuban) and for which he invented a new technique of printing in severeral colors called nishiki-e (brocade of images). He also produced some 100 color images on separate pages and illustrated some 20 books in black and white, among them Ehon kokinran (1763), Ehon hanakazura (1764), Ehon seira awase, Yoshiwara bijin awase (1770), and Kyokun iroha no uta (1775). He also made a large number of erotic images (shunga). Among his many students were Koryusai, Harushige, and Tanaka Masanobu; after his death, his works were imitated by several artists, notably Shiba Kokan. Published June 1956

(8) TORII KIYONAGA (1752-1815): Student of and successor to Torii Kiyomitsu. He painted portraits of Kabuki actors and bijin (beautiful women). Published Sept. 1956

(9) UTAGAWA TOYOKUNI (1769-1825): also often referred to as Toyokuni I, to distinguish him from the members of his school who took over his art-name after he died, was a great master of ukiyo-e, known in particular for his Kabuki actor prints. He was one of the heads of the renowned Utagawa school of Japanese woodblock artists, and was the person who really moved it to the position of great fame and power it occupied for the rest of the nineteenth century.He was born in Edo, the son of Kurohashi Gorobei, a carver of dolls and puppets, including replicas of Kabuki actors. Toyokuni was apprenticed to the first head of the Utagawa house, Utagawa Toyoharu, whom his father knew well and who lived nearby, at about the age of 14. One of his fellow pupils under Toyoharu was Toyohiro, whose pupil was the great landscape artist Hiroshige. In recognition of his artistic ability, Toyokuni took the name Utagawa Toyokuni, in the common practise of using one syllable of his master's name, shortly thereafter. Toyokuni seems not to have been an intuitive genius determined to forge a new path; rather, he seems to have studied intently those who came before him, particularly Utamaro, and through a great deal of hard work produced first a mastery, and then a synthesis of their styles, and created a style of his own. He was known mostly for his prints related to the Kabuki theatre, in particular his actor portraits, a field which he took to new heights, although he also produced bijinga. In his actor prints, like Sharaku, one sees the real subject; but his prints merely portrayed what he saw, unlike Sharaku who exaggerated those aspects he saw as the most key. It is said of Toyokuni's prints that they recreate exactly what one would see on stage; they show actors acting, not merely just pictures of actors. Together, these characteristics made Toyokuni's prints far more popular among the crowd of theatre-goers than Sharaku's, although history has come to judge Sharaku the keener observer, and greater artist. This popularity may in part have been his undoing, though. From 1803 through 1817, his work became more static, even as it became more popular. He continued to produce large quantities of prints, but the quality as a rule did not match that of his earlier days, although occasional prints from this period show his old brilliance. Published Jan. 1957

(10) TOYO SESSHU (1420-1506): Is generally regarded as Japan's greatest painter. His Zen-inspired paintings are credited with establishing a truly Japanese style of ink painting which had a great influence on all later Japanese painting. The Muromachi, or Ashikaga, period during which Sesshu lived was profoundly influenced by Zen Buddhism, which had been introduced from China during the Kamakura period. Under its impact the Chinese-style ink paintings of the great masters of the Southern Sung period, especially the landscape painters Ma Yuan and Hsia Kuei and the Ch'an painters Mu Ch'i and Yu-chien, served as models for the Japanese painters. Not only did these artists derive their style from China, but the landscape they represented was also that of South China in spite of the fact that many of them had never been there. Sesshu was born in Bitchu Province in western Honshu. As a youth, he became a Buddhist novice at the Shokoku-ji, a well-known Zen temple in Kyoto which was not only a famous Buddhist sanctuary but a celebrated cultural center as well. At the monastery young Sesshu came under the influence of the famous painter Shubun, who was a fellow monk, and the Zen master Shunrin Suto, who became his spiritual adviser. Little is known about Sesshu's early artistic work prior to his journey to China (1467-1469), during which he visited Buddhist monasteries and traveled as far as Peking. Although the artist was well received and also much impressed by the grandiose landscape, he was disappointed with the state of painting in Ming China, which to his way of thinking compared unfavorably to the painting of the Sung period some 2 centuries earlier. Returning to Japan in 1469, Sesshu moved from place to place in northern Kyushu to avoid the civil war which was raging in Kyoto and finally settled in Oita, where he enjoyed the patronage of the Otomo family. His friend, the monk Bofu Ryushin, in commenting upon Sesshu's position at this time, reported that everyone from the nobility to the common people of Oita admired his painting and asked for examples of his work. Between 1481 and 1484 the artist made a long journey through Japan, visiting many parts of the country and making numerous sketches of the landscape. Of all the various subjects treated by Sesshu, landscapes form by far the largest and most important category. The earliest of these is a set of hanging scrolls depicting the four seasons (National Museum, Tokyo). Painted either in China or shortly after his return, they reflect the rather dry and academic style of the Chinese Che school of the time. His mature style is best seen in a pair of landscape scrolls depicting fall and winter, which originally belonged to the Manju-in in Kyoto (now in the National Museum, Tokyo). Painted in ink on paper in a vigorous and expressive manner, they show the artist at his very best. The style and the subject are derived from Chinese models, but Sesshu's paintings show far greater contrasts between solid blacks and lighter tones, more emphasis on heavy lines, and a flatter space than would be found in Chinese Sung painting. While these pictures are in the form of hanging scrolls, called kakemono, other landscapes by Sesshu are in the form of horizontal hand scrolls known as makimono. The most famous of these, and perhaps Sesshu's most outstanding work, is the long scroll landscape (collection of the Mori family, Yamaguchi). Measuring more than 50 feet in length and painted in 1486, when the artist was at the peak of his power, it represents suiboku ink painting at its best, combining magnificent brushwork with a profound interpretation of the moods and aspects of nature. Starting with a spring landscape, it ends with winter scenes depicting mountains, gnarled pines, picturesque rocks, tiny figures, fishing boats, village huts, and town houses. Two other celebrated Sesshu landscapes are the haboku sansui scroll (National Museum, Tokyo) of 1495 and the Ama-no-hashidate, or Bridge of Heaven scroll (National Museum, Kyoto), a work from the very end of Sesshu's life, about 1502 to 1506. The haboku sansui is painted in the so-called spilled-ink style, a free and very spontaneous manner derived from the Zen tradition. The Ama-no-hashidate, which is a kind of topographical painting of a celebrated beauty spot located on the Japanese sea coast, is executed in a very meticulous style. Several other landscapes can with more or less certainty be attributed to Sesshu, but none of them is equal in quality to these masterpieces. Among the landscapes in American collections which are attributed to Sesshu, the spilled-ink-style picture in the Cleveland Museum is the most authentic as well as the finest esthetically. Although Sesshu remained a Buddhist monk all his life and his landscape painting was religious in inspiration, several of his other works are Zen paintings in a more specific sense. Among these is a large scroll painted in 1496 (collection of the Sainen-ji, Aichi prefecture). It depicts Hui-ko cutting off his arm to demonstrate his will power to the founder of Zen, Bodhidarma, or Daruma, as he is called in Japan. Both the bold, inspired brushwork of the picture and the choice of the subject matter are typical of Zen Buddhist thought. The portrait of Daruma, with bushy eyebrows and a fierce expression, reveals his spiritual power in a masterful way. The third main category of Sesshu's work consists of decorative screen paintings depicting birds and flowers as well as monkeys and all sorts of trees and plants. This type of painting, which was particularly popular in Ming China, is very different from Sesshu's other work owing to its greater attention to realistic detail and emphasis on decorative design rather than religious feeling. The format too tends to differ from most of his other works, for these paintings tend to be folding screens instead of scroll paintings. Among the screens of this type, the finest is a pair showing birds and flowers rendered in a very decorative and detailed manner (Kosaka Collection, Tokyo). After Sesshu returned to western Japan, he settled at Yamaguchi in Suho Province, where he set up the Tenkai-toga-ro studio and enjoyed the patronage of the Mori family. He spent the remainder of his life at Yamaguchi, enjoying ever-growing fame as Japan's leading artist. Published ?

UEMURA SHOEN (1875-1949): #11? Shoen Uemura was born in Kyoto on April 23, 1875. Her real name was Tsune Uemura. She had a strong interest in "Bijinga" drawings (images portraying the beauty of women) over her entire lifetime, which spanned the Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras. Her style involved sharpening the sense of color of "Bijinga" paintings and developing them into works of art rather than sketches. Her work has no equal in this class of paintings. She entered Kyoto Prefectural Art School in 1874 and studied under several traditional Japanese painters, including Shounen Suzuki, Bairei Kono and Seiho Takeuchi. Her genius blossomed from early on, at which point her style was already firmly established: it became known later as "Shoen-style Bijinga". At the age of 15, she entered "Shiki Bijinga " in Naikoku Kangyo Hakurankai (Domestic Industrial Exposition) and won a prize. With this as a start, she successively exhibited works in various expositions, such as the Nihon Bijutsu Kyokai (Japanese Art Association) and the Japan Youth Painting Fair, succeeding in breaking new ground with "Bijinga" paintings. She became a household name when she was granted the third prize for "Nagayo" in the 1st Bunten Exhibition of 1907 and for "Tsukikage " in the 2nd Exhibition the next year. In the 9th Bunten Exhibition of 1915, she also won the second prize for "Hana-gatami", and finally she was recommended as a permanent exhibitor the next year. Subsequently, as a member of the Teiten Exhibition (Japan Imperial Exhibition), an advisor to the Teiten Exhibition and a member of Teikoku Bijutsuin (the Japan Imperial Academy of Art), she made a major contribution to the Modern Painting Academy of Japan. In 1948, she was the first woman to be awarded the Order of Culture. On August 27 of the very next year, she passed away at her mountain cottage in Heijo Village, Nara Prefecture.

(12) SHIKO MUNAKATA (September 5, 1903 ? September 13, 1975): Was a woodblock printmaker active in Sh?wa period Japan. He is associated with the sosaku hanga movement and the mingei (folk art) movement. Munakata was awarded the "Prize of Excellence" at the Second International Print Exhibition in Lugano, Switzerland in 1952. He was awarded the Order of Culture, the highest honor in the arts by the Japanese government in 1970. In 1926, Munakata saw Kawakami Sumio's black-and-white woodcut Early Summer Breeze, and decided to work on black-and-white prints. From 1928 onwards, Hiratsuka Unichi (1895?1997), another renowned sosaku hanga printmaker, taught Munakata wood carving. In 1929, four of his prints were accepted by the Shunyokai Exhibition, which bolstered his confidence in the new medium. In the following year, four more of his works were accepted for the Kokugakai national exhibition, thus establishing him in his career. Munakata took many of his themes from the traditions of his native Aomori in northern Japan, including the local people's love of nature and folk festivals such as the Nebuta festival. Munakata's belief and philosophy were engrained in Zen Buddhism. His prints feature images of floating nude females representing Shinto kami that inhabit trees and plants. Inspired by poetry of the Heian period, Munakata also incorporated poetry and calligraphy into his prints. Unlike Onchi K?shir? (1891?1955), father of the sosaku hanga movement, who advocated artistsf expression of the gselfh in creating prints, Munakata disclaimed all responsibilities as creator of art. For Munakata, artistic creation is one but many of the manifestations of nature's force and beauty, which is inherent in the woodblock itself. Munakata called prints gitagah instead of ghangah emphasizing the material instead of the process of printing. (written in the same kanji, ghanh refers to the process of printing, whereas gitah refers to the woodblock itself). In Munakata words, gthe essence of hanga lies in the fact that one must give in to the ways of the boardcthere is a power in the board, and one cannot force the tool against that power.h Munakatafs subject matter and artistic style are very much characterized by his philosophy on the supremacy of the woodblock material and naturefs inherent force and beauty.

(13) KAIGETSUDO (ANDO YASUNORI): Active circa 1700-1714. Creator of ukiyo-e prints. He founded the Kaigetsudo school, which specialized in images of beautiful women (bijin). He is sometimes confused with Ankei. His students continued the Kaigetsudo-ryu.

TSURUYA KOKEI or YOSHIMURA KOKEI #??? Further research underway Tsuruya Kokei was born with his real name Gen Mitsu in Chikasaki City in Kanagawa Prefecture. Although he was born into a family of artists, he never had any formal art training nor the intention to step into the footprints of his father and grandfather, who had been professional painters. Gen Mitsu took a job as an employee until he was 32 years old. At that time he had the idea of making actor prints in a modified style of Sharaku, the greatest mystery artist in the history of ukiyo-e. Kokei made his first prints of popular, contemporary Kabuki actors with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. And when the great moment had come to show the world his prints... nothing happened. Nobody came to see his works and nobody bought anything. Kokei was frustrated, but he was a brave trooper. He made a few more tries to become a print artist - even with a different subject, a series of eight prints titled 'Eight Kinds of Hell'. The artist who had never received any formal art training, was like the Sosaku Hanga artists who wanted to do everything themselves. And he not only mastered the whole printmaking process, but he set his personal standards to the highest level possible. He used a very thin paper called ganpi, which is very difficult to print on. And he applied all these lush and elaborate techniques like gofun (a white powder) and mica (metal pigments) that require the highest level of skill, but turn an ordinary print into a splendid deluxe edition.

Kôkei, Yoshimura 孝敬 吉村 (1769 - 1836) Yoshimura Kôkei was the son of Yoshimura Ranshū. He lived in Kyoto. He was one of Maruyama Ōkyo’s famous ten pupils (with Keibun, Bunrin, Nangaku, Genki, Soken a.o.). He was in the service of the Nishi Hogan-ji, for which he painted a series of screens. Yoshimura Kôkei was known for his kachō-ga. His work was included in contemporary anthologies like Bijin Awase in 1809 and Kakusei Chō in 1828

(15) TAKEUCHI SEIHO (1864-1942): Seih? was born in Kyoto. As a child, he loved to draw and wanted to become an artist. He was a disciple of K?no Bairei of the Maruyama-Shijo school of traditional painting. In 1882, two of his works received awards at the Naikoku Kaiga Kyoshinkai (Domestic Painting Competition), one of the first modern painting competitions in Japan, which launched him on his career. During the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1900), he toured Europe, where he studied Western art. After returning to Japan he established a unique style, combining the realist techniques of the traditional Japanese Maruyama?Shijo school with Western forms of realism borrowed from the techniques of Turner and Corot. This subsequently became one of the principal styles of modern Nihonga. His favorite subjects were animals -often in amusing poses, such as a monkey riding on a horse. He was also noted for his landscapes. From the start of the Bunten exhibitions in 1907, Seih? served on the judging committee. In 1909 he became a professor at the Kyoto Municipal College of Painting (the forerunner to the Kyoto City University of Arts). Seih? also established his own private school, the Chikujokai. Many of his students later went on to establish themselves as noted artists, inclyding Tokuoka Shinsen and Uemura Sh?en. In 1913, Seih? was appointed as a court painter to the Imperial Household Agency, and in 1919 was nominated to the Imperial Fine Arts Academy (Teikoku Bijutsuin). He was one of the first persons to be awarded the Order of Culture when it was established in 1937.

(16) KAWAI GYOKUDO (1873-1957): He studied with Kono Bairen and Mochizuki Gyokusen (of the Shijo school in Kyoto), then with Hashimoto Gaho (Kano school of Tokyo). He became a professor at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and was elected a member of the Imperial Fine Arts Academy (Teikoku Bijutsu-in) in 1919. He received the Order of Culture (Bunka-sho) in 1940. His style represents a sort of compromise between the Kano school of Edo and the Maruyama school.

(17) YASUDA YUKIHIKO (1884-1978): Painter in "Japanese" (Nihonga) style, born in Tokyo. He studied the style of the Tosa school, then converted to ukiyo-e style, in which he was noted for the fluidity of his drawn lines and the restraint with which he treated his subjects (most of them historical). Artistic advisor to the imperial household in 1934, he taught at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko) from 1944 to 1948 and received the Order of Culture (Bunka-sho) in 1951. He was elected president of the Japan Art Academy (Nihon Geijutsu-in) in 1958.

(18) KAZAN (1784-1837): Painter and samurai who studied with Buncho and Kaneko kinryo. He introduced European oil-painting techniques for portraits, flowers, and birds to Japan. Imprisoned for his Western sympathies and unable to work, he committed harakiri.