White Herons in Rain (left)

In this composition, Fujii Setsuden used a color palette that borrows from Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, European art movements of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The pair of screens is an example of nihonga, or “[modern] Japanese painting.” The terms nihonga, which indicates works in ink and mineral pigments, and yōga, or “Western-style [oil] painting,” were developed in response to the rapid influx of information about European painting and culture that became available to artists in Japan from the mid-1800s. One goal of nihonga was to reinterpret Japanese styles and formats to correct for a perceived lack of relevance to modern sensibilities.