Eisaku Wada

was a Japanese painter and luminary of the yōga (or Western-style) scene in the late Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa eras. He was a member of the Japan Art Academy, an Imperial Household Artist, a recipient of the Order of the Sacred Treasure and Order of Culture, an Officier in the Légion d'honneur, and a Person of Cultural Merit.

Biography Born in what is now the city of Tarumizu, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, in 1874, little Eisaku moved to Azabu in Tokyo with his family at the age of four or five when his father , a pastor, was appointed as an instructor in English at the Naval Academy. In 1887 the young Wada entered the Protestant ; among his classmates was fellow yōga painter , while author Tōson Shimazaki was in one of the years above. In 1896 Wada was involved, along with Kuroda and Kume, in the establishment of the Hakuba-kai or "White Horse Society", submitting nineteen pieces for the 1st Exhibition that year; In 1899 Wada took up Fischer's invitation to assist with the cataloguing of his burgeoning collection of Japanese art, and travelled to Berlin; this was the time of the Berlin Secession. His Thoughts of Home (Portrait of a Japanese Lady) appeared at the 1902 Salon organized by the Société des Artistes Français, while he sent Kodama back home for the Fifth National Industrial Exhibition, in 1903, where again he was awarded a runners-up prize.

Returning to Japan, via Italy, also in 1903 he was appointed professor at his alma mater. In 1933 he became a member of the Historical Sites, Places of Scenic Beauty, and Natural Monuments Examining Committee. His Evening at the Ferry Crossing depicts a family of farmers at the Yaguchi crossing (ja) of the Tama River, strikingly illuminated, according to art historian , through his "skillful manipulation of evening light". in Harada's words, it "evokes a Romantic sensuousness through gentle shading of the figure and barely visible handling of the brush";

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