Yokoyama Taikan

Yokoyama Taikan was a Japanese painter and a leading force in modern Japanese-style painting, known as nihonga. Born in 1868, he helped renew traditional Japanese painting at a time when Western art was pouring into the country. He is famous for atmospheric ink landscapes and especially for his many paintings of Mount Fuji, treated as a symbol of Japan itself.

He experimented with a soft, hazy technique that dissolved hard outlines, which some critics mocked at first but which became influential. Deeply patriotic, he saw his art as an expression of the Japanese spirit. Taikan became one of the most honored artists in Japan, and his misty landscapes and majestic views of Fuji remain widely beloved.