Kuroda Seiki and Kyoto

In the summer of 1893, Kuroda Seiki returned to Japan after nine years of study in France and experienced his first visit to Kyoto in autumn of the same year. During his stay in France, Kuroda had been close to people who admired Japanese traditional culture, such as his teacher Raphael Collin, but the trip to Kyoto gave Kuroda his first real experience of Japanese traditions. He writes: "Visiting Kyoto, I had a feeling of coming to a strange country named Japan which is outside of the world." While of Kyoto's maiko girls, he writes: "I have the same feeling as Westerners who describe Japanese females as pretty small birds. They look like very rare, pretty and fragile decorations."

In the early days following his return from the West, Kuroda seems to have seen Kyoto as a foreign culture. It was during this period that Kuroda painted "Maiko Girl" and "Talk on Ancient Romance," which are highly acclaimed works within his oeuvre.

This exhibition considers the relationship between Kuroda and Kyoto through works taking Kyoto as their subject.