Takejiro Inagaki was a nihonga (Japanese style) painter who later turned to crafting gold and lacquer wares. These artistic skills were shared by two of his sons, whose bodies of work are the subject of "The Inagaki Brothers: Chusei and Toshijiro" at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto.
Chusei (1897-1922), the elder, died early, succumbing to an intestinal disorder at age 25, just as his paintings were attracting critical acclaim. Toshijiro (1902-1963), who took to yuzen-technique stencil printing, produced a fully mature body of work that resulted in his designation as a Living National Treasure in 1962.
It was Toshijiro's dream that the brothers' work be exhibited together. He felt Chusei's curtailed oeuvre would not show poorly alongside his own work. And indeed it does not, though to Toshijiro's detriment. Toshijiro emerges as a traditional conservative, while Chusei's challenges to the stylistic precedents and authority of nihonga prove more interesting.