Bokuyō Katayama championed a style of painting collectively known as nihon-ga, which is a distinctly “Japanese style painting” as opposed to the Western-style oil painting that was gaining popularity in Japan. Nihon-ga artists used traditional subjects, formats, and materials, but their approach often reveals some influence from the West. Here, the logical recession into deep space and subtle color variations to suggest atmospheric depth can be seen, which are the result of Bokuyō’s exposure to Western art. Nevertheless, the dramatically tipped ground-plain, reduction of motifs, and precisely applied mineral pigments are elements of traditional painting.
P.S. Katayama could have been inspired by ... Gustav Klimt and his beautiful trees. <3
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