Uemura Shoen

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Uemura Shôen is the most famous female Japanese painter of the Nihonga movement. It was expected during her life that women would create Bijinga (pictures of beautiful women) since this was what women were thought to understand. She was no exception, falling into line with the Conservative agenda in Japan, much like Kaburagi Kiyokata. She was raised by her mother and she herself became a single mother when she had an illegitimate son by one of her teachers. During the war she supported nationalism in pieces like Late Autumn which shows a beautiful woman doing her part to help the war- handling chores at home instead of bothering the men with them. She even travelled, as an old woman, to the war zone in China to prove to people back home that all was going well.