Japanese Art and Kobayashi Kokei (Nature)

Japanese Art and Kobayashi Kokei (Nature)

Lee Jay Walker

Modern Tokyo Times

The Japanese painter Kobayashi Kokei (1883–1957) was born amid the snow-laden landscapes of Niigata Prefecture, a region whose quiet severity seems to echo through the measured stillness of his later art. From early childhood, his hand was already attuned to the refined discipline of Nihonga, the classical Japanese mode of painting that values restraint, clarity, and inner harmony over spectacle.