高村光雲

Takamura Kōun brought wood carving into the modern age. Born in Tokyo in 1852, he trained under the Buddhist sculptor Takamura Tōun and eventually adopted his name. When the Meiji Restoration nearly destroyed the traditional craft—Buddhism was suppressed, ivory carving became fashionable for export, and wood sculpture seemed obsolete—Kōun revived it by studying Western art and infusing his work with realism. He became a professor at Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1890 and taught several of Japan's most important modern sculptors.