Taikan Yokoyama1868~1958 横山大観

Yokoyama Taikan (1868-1958) is one of the foremost masters of modern Japanese-style (nihonga) painting. Born in Mito (present-day Ibaraki Prefecture) as the eldest son of the Mito-domain samurai Sakai Sutehiko, he was adopted into the Yokoyama family in 1888. In 1889 he enrolled as a member of the first class of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, studying under Okakura Tenshin, Hashimoto Gaho and Kurokawa Mayori, and in 1898 he helped found the Japan Art Institute. Together with Hishida Shunso, he developed the suppressed-line “morotai” (hazy) technique that opened a new path for modern nihonga. He remained at the center of the Japan Art Institute throughout the postwar era and, as a recipient of the inaugural Order of Culture, was the leading figure of Japanese-style painting until his death at 89.