ABSTRACT
The lives and experiences of four men, two Japanese and two English, are used here to bring this study to an end. These four, in markedly different ways, set their seal of approval by building cultural bridges between the country of their birth and that of their adopted country. Kyosai Kawanabe’s (1831-89)1 contribution to Japanese art was illuminated at the British Museum by an exhibition, between 1 December 1993 and 15 February 1994. The book to illustrate the exhibition was entitled The Demon of Painting.2
This would have greatly pleased Josiah Conder,3 one-time Professor of Architecture in Tokyo, who was Kyosai’s devoted pupil for the last years of Kyosai’s life. The dedication of the poet and Orientalist, Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)4 at the British Museum in London created a new dimension in studies of Japanese fine art and artefacts. Mikimoto Ryuzo (1894-1971),5
