After the borders in Japan were opened to foreigh trade in 1853, foreign objects, customs and art styles entered the country, which had been isolated from the rest of the world for more than 200 years. The country eagerly absorbed all novelties and started to change. Many artists felt compelled to develop a new style of painting, to place opposite Western style oil painting. The Nihonga artists continued to work with traditional formats and materials, but the subject matter became more exotic and the perspective more Western.

The work presented here is a traditional two-panel folding screen. It is painted in ink, mineral colors and gofun (white powdered shell) on silk, as had been the tradition for centuries. However, the underwater view of a reef and tropical fish was a very novel and exotic idea. Something that the majority of the Japanese at that time would never have seen.