Unripe Plum Blossoms

This pair of paintings was exhibited at the first Kokuten Exhibition (the Exhibition of the Association for the Creation of National Painting), which was established as a venue for artists to develop their individuality. The painting is influenced by the romantic yearning for the West of the Taisho Period and is filled with a raw vitality that is very different from the paintings of his latter years which are simpler and more structured.