After having studied Western-style painting in Japan, Foujita traveled to Paris, where he encountered the international modern art scene of the Montparnasse neighborhood and developed an eclectic style that borrowed from both Japanese and European artistic traditions.

His watercolor and oil works of nudes, still lifes, and self-portraits were a commercial success and he became a notable figure in the Parisian art scene.

Foujita spent three years voyaging through South and North America before returning to Japan in 1933, documenting his observations in sketches and paintings.

His oil paintings won him acclaim during the war, but the public's view of him turned negative in the wake of the Japanese defeat.

In France, Foujita is remembered as part of the années folles of the 1920s, but public opinion of him in Japan remains mixed due to his monumental depictions of the war.

Recent retrospective exhibitions organized since 2006 in Japan have sought to establish Foujita's place in Japanese twentieth-century art history.

However, his father, after consulting with his friend Ōgai Mori, a surgeon and novelist who had previously lived in Germany, encouraged him to continue his studies in fine art in Japan.

He enrolled in 1905 at what is now the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and studied under Seiki Kuroda, who taught yōga, western-style painting.

[3] Foujita met his first wife, Tomiko Tokita, a school teacher, during a voyage to Chiba Prefecture during which he realized a number of paintings for his diploma, including the artist's first-known first self-portrait.

Unsure of his personal style and never having lost sight of his dream to travel to Paris, Foujita decided to leave in 1913, when he was 27 years old.

[10] He quickly made friends with the Japanese painter Riichirō Kawashima [ja], who had many connections in the Paris art scene,[11] as they shared a studio.

[12] While many Japanese artists who came to Paris tended to live amongst themselves and struggled to adjust to the Parisian lifestyle, Foujita made great efforts to adapt to his new surroundings.

[12] This fruitful encounter, during which Foujita discovered cubism, led to his acquaintance with Guillaume Apollinaire, Georges Braques, Fernand Léger, Erik Satie, Kees van Dongen, Jean Metzinger, André Derain and Pierre Bonnard.

[24] This success coincided with the arrival of the Roaring Twenties in Paris, a time of relative economic prosperity that fueled a strong art market and thriving nightlife.

Foujita's production in the early 1920s began to concentrate into three distinct genres: self portraits, interior scenes (including many still lives), and nudes.

[25] Japanese artists in Paris who practiced Western-style painting were generally described by contemporary critics as simple copyists, or, in the words of André Warnod, "wanting to be European at all costs".

From the beginning of his stay in Paris, Foujita took advantage of his proximity to the Louvre to study artists such as Raphael, Rembrandt, and Leonardo da Vinci.

The general public packed his first one-man show there, and his works sold well, but the critics panned him as a mediocre artist imitating Western style.

By 1931, Youki and Desnos had become a couple,[41] and Foujita, who continued to have problems with his back taxes[42] and suffered bankruptcy[43] left for South America with Madeleine Lequeux,[44] a former dancer known as Mady Dormans who worked at the Casino de Paris.

In other words, his trip to South America made him aware of the social and political roles that large public art could play.

[48] After his visit to Mexico, Foujita traveled through the Southwest of the United States, and then went on to San Francisco and Los Angeles, where he continued to exhibit and be treated as a celebrity.

[53]: 58  Art historian Aya Louise McDonald also points out that his compositions were further enriched by Foujita's knowledge of 19th-century French painting in the Louvre.

[58]: 180 His most famous painting from this period is Last Stand at Attu, completed in August 1943, which depicts a battle against American troops on the Aleutian Islands.

[66]: 99 Foujita was able to get a visa to the United States with the help of Henry Sugimoto and took up a teaching position at the Brooklyn Museum Art School in March 1949.

[73] He briefly became involved with costume design, creating the "Japanese" outfits for the May 1951 performance of Madame Butterfly at La Scala,[74] and did illustrations for a book by René Héron de Villefosse [fr][73] In 1954, Foujita married Kimiyo.

[3] The couple converted to Catholicism and were baptised in Reims Cathedral on 14 October 1959, with René Lalou, the head of the Mumm Champagne House, and Françoise Taittinger as his godfather and godmother.

Foujita hoped that the structure, named the Chapel of Our Lady of Peace and built with the help of Lalou's funding,[78] would symbolize the completion of his career.

From 1963 until its opening to the public in 1966, he designed almost every aspect of the structure,[80] decorating the interior with frescoes of biblical scenes, many of which illustrated the life of Christ.

An exhibition presenting the ensemble of Foujita's work, including his wartime production, was organized by the Centre Pompidou and the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo in 1980, but was canceled at the last minute.

It included two of the artists' war paintings, shown for the first time outside of Japan, permitting the French public to understand Foujita's career beyond his years in Montparnasse.