Window And Staircase In Kuroda Memorial Hall

Shot at Kuroda Memorial Hall in Ueno, Tokyo.

When I came to the entrance of Ueno Park, I found a western-style architecture at a corner of the street. It was Kuroda Memorial Hall. This hall was built under the will of Kuroda Seiki, who was the father of Japanese modern oil painting.

When he was 17, he went on an overseas study program in France to read law. Yet he changed his mind two years later. And he started to study painting. As a consequence, what he brought back to Japan was not the juristic knowledge but the most-advanced brushwork of that time. His works are famous and appear in school textbooks.

Entering the hall, I expected I could see some of his famous works. However, my expectation was betrayed soon. Most of the works displayed in this hall were painted by Louis-Joseph-Raphael Collin, who was the professor of Kuroda.