Kawabata Ryushi was born in Wakayama, but he went to Tokyo and made his career there. He first painted in a Western manner, but in 1912 he made a trip to USA, and in the Museum of Fine Art in Boston he was struck by traditional oriental painting, consequently changed his style and took up pure Japanese-style painting. In 1930 he was awarded the Asahi Culture prize and in 1959 the Order of Cultural Merit. Apart from being a painter he made a few woodblock prints.
