Watercolours of the Maiji Period — 明治期の水彩画

Watercolours of the Meiji Period (明治期の水彩画) places Ishii Hakutei in dialogue with one of the most consequential aesthetic shifts in modern Japanese art: the adoption of Western watercolour as a legitimate medium of expression during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Hakutei, who studied Western painting before turning to printmaking, was uniquely positioned to engage with this lineage. His father Ishii Teiko had been part of the earlier generation that introduced yoga (Western-style painting) to Japan, and Hakutei carried that bilingual visual education into his own practice as a [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) pioneer.