For this topic I wanted to share something that has a personal interest to me. I am a Korean-American born in the U.S. My great-grandfather was actually a painter from this period. The Korean side of my family was originally from the northern part of the country, but fled during the Korean War to Seoul. Unfortunately in the war, family heirlooms and his paintings were left behind, presumably destroyed. I've spent some time trying to track some down in case they were recovered and archived somewhere, but have had no luck so far. In that search I made some interesting discoveries about this time period though. Firstly, for some context I want to talk about Japan's rapid modernization in the late 19th century, referred to as the Meiji Restoration. After centuries of feudal wars in Japan, the land was reunited under imperial rule through the Shinto religion's divine right of the emperor. They were pressured by the threat of colonialization by Western powers (notably Russia), an...