Maruyama Banka
1867 – 1942Japanese
Maruyama Banka (1867–1942) was a Japanese watercolor painter celebrated for his mountain landscapes. He trained first in Nanga literati painting before turning to Western methods, and in 1913 he helped found the Nihon Suisaiga-kai (Japan Watercolor Society), arguing that watercolor deserved to stand beside oil. His work was shaped by relentless travel — Europe in 1911, then Korea, China, Southeast Asia and India in the years that followed — where he recorded foreign landscapes with a plein-air sensibility. His view of Mount Abu in Rajasthan dates from that Indian journey.
