Here, let us introduce Hirayama Ikuo’s passion, nihonga or traditional Japanese-style painting. The term nihonga was coined in the Meiji period, around the latter half of the 19th to the early 20th century, in contrast to yōga, or Western-style oil painting.

Nihonga are generally executed on silk or Japanese paper, using mineral pigments, which are made of finely ground natural minerals mixed with nikawa, or animal glue. Some of the materials include costly semiprecious stones such as azurite, which is crushed for blue pigments, and malachite to produce green pigments. The coarser the mineral is crushed, the deeper the color. The finer the powder is ground, the lighter the color.

In nihonga, works colored with these natural mineral pigments are called honga or “real paintings.” Hirayama Ikuo is known for his stunning honga with rich, deeply applied colors.

In contrast to honga, sobyō refer to sketches outlined with sumi or black ink on Japanese paper, which is then water-colored. Both honga and sobyō represent traditional Japanese painting techniques, though unlike honga, sobyō uses paper that has not been treated to prevent it from bleeding. Painters quickly apply black ink as the outline, then colors, using the bleeding effect to demonstrate their brushwork, stroke by stroke.