Yokoyama Taikan

Yokoyama Taikan (1868–1958) studied under Okakura Tenshin and traveled through India, Europe, and America, absorbing Western chiaroscuro while championing Asian aesthetic unity. Alongside Shunso, he developed the line-free morotai technique, merging traditional sumi-e wash with modern impressionistic color harmony.

Taikan re-established the Nihon Bijutsuin in 1914 and became Japan's most revered 20th-century painter, creating monumental national scroll paintings like 'Metempsychosis' ('Sasei Ruten', 1923), tracing a raindrop from the clouds down to the ocean. In 1937, he was the inaugural recipient of the Order of Culture.