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- artists began using Western brushes and thick oil pigments to depict realistic images. The Western-style oil paintings came to be known as yoga. Some artists achieved remarkable skill in the use of the new medium and created striking works of realistic art, while others were simply regarded as mediocre imitations of European painting. Among the most gifted Meiji period Western-style painters were Kuroda Seiki (1866-1924), Fujishima Takeji (1867-1943) and Asai Chu (1856-1907), who display a great deal of sensitivity in their works. Unfor�tunately, good Meiji period oil paintings are rare and there are few outside of Japan. Hence there are none represented in this exhibition.
Those artists who had gone abroad to learn Western tech�niques held exhibitions upon their return and eventually were able to take part in government sponsored shows. In 1896, when the Tokyo Art School opened a department for Western- style painting, they gained a foothold which they would never relinquish.
Conservatives, like Okakura and Fenellosa, maintained their confidence in the Japanese painting traditions. They encouraged Meiji painters to try to advocate a fusion between Eastern and Western approaches by utilizing traditional materials and meth�ods with European realistic attitudes. A new Japanese style of genre painting called nihonga, or Japanese painting, emerged. Okakura and Fenellosa exalted the nihonga style over the yoga, which to some extent inhibited the growth of the latter until late in the Meiji period when Western-style realism in art be�came more acceptable. Perhaps the most famous of the Japanese nihonga painters was Yokoyama Taikan (1868-?), who studied under Okakura. His style was an amalgamation of Chinese, Japanese and Western methods. Other notable painters of this school included Maeda Seison and Kobayashi Kokei. Unfor�tunately early nihonga paintings were also unavailable for this exhibit.
Ceramics
With the abolition of feudal clans in 1871 shortly after the resto�ration, Japanese potters lost their major patrons. As a result there was a temporary drop in demand for exquisite individual
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