41 Facts About Yoshio Markino

Yoshio Markino was born in the town of Koromo, Toyota, Aichi, Japan, named Makino Heijiro at birth.

Yoshio Markino was the youngest of 3 children, Yoshi and Toshitaro.

Yoshio Markino's mother was Makino Katsu, and his father was Makino Toshimoto, who founded and taught at their Koromo Primary School.

Yoshio Markino then began working in Hagiwara Primary School until he moved to live with his biological father in Toyoaki City.

Yoshio Markino was curious about, and attracted to, Western culture and in 1893, aged 24, he obtained a travel permit to the United States to study.

Yoshio Markino left Japan from Yokohama on The Peru, arriving in San Francisco in July 1893.

In November 1893, Yoshio Markino started his tuition at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art.

Yoshio Markino was spat on in public in California.

Yoshio Markino experienced limited opportunities based on his societal status, and difficulty finding decent employers, working as a house-boy for a dollar and a half a day.

Yoshio Markino was insulted further when his first employer refused to learn his Japanese name saying it was too difficult to remember and instead referred to him as 'Charlie'.

In November 1897, Yoshio Markino travelled from New York to Paris to meet Tadamasa Hayashi, a prominent dealer in Japanese art, but by that time Hayashi had returned to Japan.

Yoshio Markino walked everywhere as he had no money for the public transport, and lived on 'Bovril and rice'.

Yoshio Markino kept a studio at 39 Redcliffe Road, South Kensington, while living in Brixton.

Yoshio Markino instead spent the money on art supplies and rent.

At this stage in his career, Yoshio Markino frequently had little income.

Yoshio Markino took him under his wing and introduced Markino to a wider Edwardian social circle, while encouraging him to draw, paint and write.

In September 1905, Yoshio Markino was nominated as a judge for the Venice Great Art Exposition representing the British Art Association.

Yoshio Markino stayed in Paris until June 1908, and during this period met Auguste Rodin at the home of Leon Benedite.

Yoshio Markino lived in Rome from October 1908 to May 1909 to illustrate the final volume in a three part book series The Colour of Rome, which was published by Chatto and Windus later in 1909.

Olave and Yoshio Markino were said to have been romantically involved at the time.

In 1915, Yoshio Markino lectured on ethics and philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.

In Boston, Yoshio Markino lectured on Eastern and Western philosophy, and on social issues, including racial discrimination, likely recounting many of his negative experiences in San Francisco during his first stay in America.

Yoshio Markino continued to have trouble selling his work, which prompted his return to London in 1927, while Marie stayed in America.

Yoshio Markino divorced Marie in September 1927, with the marriage ending on the grounds that it had never been consummated.

Yoshio Markino described the relationship as being 'like sister and brother'.

Yoshio Markino managed to set up another exhibition and sell his watercolours, but due to his time away from the literary scene, he was regarded as outdated and started to live a bohemian lifestyle with English and Japanese friends from then on.

At the outbreak of war with Germany in 1939, Yoshio Markino continued to live in London.

In that year, artworks belonging to the noted collector Kojiro Matsukata, including several paintings by Yoshio Markino, were lost in a fire while in storage in London.

In December 1942, Yoshio Markino travelled to China and stayed at the Japanese embassy in Nanjing.

Yoshio Markino returned to Japan in 1943 and close to the end of the war moved to Nikko, then finally settling in Kamakura.

Blacker described Yoshio Markino as walking up a set of temple steps, in 'a shirt covered in smears of blue and green paint.

Yoshio Markino remained a devoted Anglophile for the rest of his years in Japan.

Yoshio Markino was invited by the English Review to write a series of essays and to author a signed weekly column with the Evening News in 1910 and another column in the Daily News in 1911.

Yoshio Markino's literary talents were widely recognized in London, and with the support of friends like Douglas Sladen he published several autobiographical works, including A Japanese Artist in London, When I was a Child, and My Recollections and Reflections.

Yoshio Markino's style was appreciated by British readers who enjoyed his unique humour.

Yoshio Markino's writings were supportive of the suffragette movement and he had many female friends.

Yoshio Markino was a popular member of a significant group of expatriate Japanese artists working in London, including Urushibara Mokuchu, Ishibashi Kazunori, Hara Busho and Matsuyama Ryuson.

Yoshio Markino was and continues to be best known for his childlike whimsy and mannerisms which Hara Basho noted:.

Yoshio Markino noted 'When I came to London first, I thought the buildings, figures, and everything in the distance, looked comparatively large, because in Japan the atmosphere is so clear that you can see every small detail in the distance, while here your background is mystified abruptly, which has great charm to me.

The silk veil technique Yoshio Markino learned in California was used to present the ebb and flow of the heavy fogs of London from the factories of the Industrial Revolution of multifarious tones and colour, which London residents described as pea-soupers when the air would turn yellow and green and 'stick' to shiny surfaces like window panes.

Yoshio Markino often enjoyed the way snow affected the everyday landscape of the city: 'that house in front of my window is painted in black and yellow.