What happens when a samurai puts down his sword, and picks up a paintbrush? In 1868, feudal Japan was steamrolled by a new decade known as the Meiji Restoration. Western influences flooded every crevice of the country’s social fabric, but arguably the most fascinating battle between “old” and “new” Japan took place on canvas. Suddenly, Japanese artists were looking to Europe for inspiration, and they stumbled into the sun-drunk, dappled light of Renoir’s barge party scenes; Degas got them dancing, and Monet’s water lilies proved that you don’t have to paint something accurately to paint it truthfully. Against all better judgement, the “Yōga movement” (“Western-style painting”) blossomed in Japan, eternalising one of history’s biggest transitions in otherwise picturesque scenes. Today, they invite us not to read between the lines, and brushstrokes, of history to understand it…
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