"Unripe Plum Blossoms" 1918 This work by Shiho was the first item presented to the National Painting Creation Society Kokuga Sosaku Kyokai, which was formed as a venue through which to present modern works of Japanese painting. The painting evokes both a vitality filled with hope for new challenges and a Romanticist yearning for the West. < Next > Sakakibara Shiho: Born in Kyoto in 1887. He studied painting under Takeuchi Seiho and Yamamoto Shunkyo at the Kyoto City School of Art and Craft and the Kyoto City Technical College of Painting and went on to develop an original style of flower and bird painting based on the traditions of the Maruyama-Shijo School. He greatly contributed to innovation in and the development of Japanese painting by producing numerous images of flowers and birds, analyzing similar paintings in China and the West as well as the wall paintings of Japan's Momoyama period. His earnest painting style never changed, and he looked within in his worship of nature. In his latter years, he enjoyed painting in India ink, in which he established a unique style. Copyright of all the pictures in this Web site belongs to the artists or the Adachi Museum of Art