Brief Biography-Kuroda Seiki, real name Kiyoteru, was born in Kagoshima City in 1866. In Tokyo, he briefly studied painting before attending a foreign language school to prepare for studying law in France. After that, he spent ten years in Paris, where the art dealer, Hayashi Tadamasa, persuaded him to take up painting in a western style. In 1893, he opened an art school in Japan and taught in his manner, referred to as pleinairism, derived from en plein air or impressionism. He established the art movement Hakuba-kai, or White Horse Society, in opposition to the Meiji Fine Art Society in 1896, and he taught at the School of Fine Arts in Tokyo that year. He was the first western-style artist to become a Teishitsu Gigeiin, supreme art specialist, and President of the Imperial Art Academy; Kuroda Seiki made western art acceptable in Japan.