黒田清輝

Kuroda Seiki brought Western painting to Japan with a painter's conviction and a teacher's discipline. Born into a Satsuma samurai family in 1866, he studied law in Paris before choosing art in 1886, training under Raphaël Collin and discovering plein-air painting at Grez-sur-Loing. His 1893 *Morning Toilette*, a large-scale nude, shocked Japan when exhibited in 1895—not for its technique but its subject, sparking fierce public debate. Kuroda refused to compromise.