Kiyoshi Saitō (artist)

[1] Saitō's early works depict villages populated with local Japanese with a high degree of realism and three-dimensionality.

He was inspired and influenced by Western artists including Paul Gauguin, Henry Matisse, and Pablo Picasso while also keeping to the long tradition of Japanese wood-block printmaking.

Kiyoshi Saito's woodblock prints titled “Autumn” are considered extremely rare and valuable.

[2] Kiyoshi Saito's works have influenced a variety of art and film today including the animation, Kubo and the Two Strings.

One example of this is comparing Saito's print, Red Poppies (1948)[4] to scenes in the movie where the main character encounters an underwater forest of monstrous, hypnotic eyeballs known as "The Garden of Eyes[5]".