13 Facts About Yokoyama Taikan

Yokoyama Taikan was the art-name of a major figure in pre-World War II Japanese painting.

Yokoyama Taikan is notable for helping create the Japanese painting technique of Nihonga.

Yokoyama Taikan studied at the Tokyo Furitsu Daiichi Chugakko, and was interested in the English language and in Western-style oil painting.

In 1889, Yokoyama Taikan enrolled in the first graduating class of the Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko, which had just been opened by Okakura Kakuzo.

Yokoyama Taikan returned to Tokyo in 1896 as assistant professor at the Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko.

Yokoyama Taikan resigned that position only a year later, when his mentor, Okakura Kakuzo, was forced to resign for political reasons, and joined Okakura in establishing the Japan Fine Arts Academy.

In 1914, after his ouster from the Bunten Fine Arts Exhibition sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Yokoyama Taikan concentrated on reviving the Japan Fine Arts Academy, which had closed down upon Okakura Kakuzo's death in 1913.

Yokoyama Taikan brought up for example Hakuo Iriyama, educated into a lacquer artist, that developed original painting and printing techniques based on dry lacquer techniques and pigmented lacquer.

Yokoyama Taikan was extremely influential in the evolution of the Nihonga technique, having departed from the traditional method of line drawing.

Yokoyama Taikan later turned almost exclusively to monochrome ink paintings, and came to be known for his mastery of the various tones and shades of black.

Yokoyama Taikan was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, first class.

On 26 February 1958, Yokoyama Taikan died in Tokyo at the age of eighty-nine; his former house is open to the public as the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Museum.

Yokoyama Taikan's brain is preserved in formaldehyde at the University of Tokyo Medical School.