Ryusei Kishida (1891-1929) remains a giant of modern yōga (Western-style Japanese painting), though his idea of "modernism" would mostly have been unrecognizable to his Western counterparts.
While his early painting dealt with Western precedents of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism from the late 19th century, he turned away from what he called the "temptations of Modernism" and sought a superlative realism he found in the art of the Northern European Renaissance (ca. 1325-1600). He subsequently invested this with grotesque elements and melded it with pre-modern Chinese painting.
Charting these turbulences in style is the focus of "The 120th Anniversary of the Birth of Kishida Ryusei" at the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art.