Chiura Obata (1885–1975) was one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most influential, respected, and beloved artists. Throughout his life, and particularly in times of great adversity, he found inspiration in what he termed “Great Nature” (Dai Shizen).
After emigrating from Japan to San Francisco in 1903, Obata became the Bay Area’s most prominent practitioner of the modern nihonga (Japanese Painting) movement, which sought to reconcile traditional Japanese and contemporary European schools of art. Accompanied by his wife Haruko Kohashi (1892–1989), who taught ikebana (flower arrangement), Obata gave public lectures and demonstrations that introduced Bay Area audiences to Japanese aesthetics and the art of sumi-e (brush and ink painting).