Yōga

The term was coined in the Meiji period (1868–1912) to distinguish Western-influenced artwork from indigenous, or more traditional Japanese paintings, or Nihonga (日本画).

[2] During the first half of the nineteenth century, some painting works showed influences of Western Art such as prints of Katsushika Hokusai.

[4] This section was headed by Kawakami Tōgai,[1] whose assistant Takahashi Yuichi was a student of English artist Charles Wirgman.

[1] In the 1880s, the general reaction against Westernization and the growth in popularity and strength of the Nihonga movement caused the temporary decline of Yōga.

Yōga has been defined by using the medium and format of the European tradition, such as oils on canvas, watercolors, pastels, and pencil on paper.

As an answer to these critics, between the 1920s and 1930s, Yōga painters adopted materials associated with Nihonga and premodern painting traditions for Western topics.

[3] Yōga in its broadest sense encompasses oil painting, watercolors, pastels, ink sketches, lithography, etching and other techniques developed in western culture.