Kuroda Seiki has been called the "Grand Old Man" of Western painting in Japan. He went to Paris in 1884 to study law, but was captivated by the Paris art world and abandoned law for painting. Kuroda trained under academician Raphael Collin (1850-1916), then moved to Grez-sur-Loing in the suburbs in order to paint directly from nature. He spent two years there in the company of fellow artist Kume Keiichiro (1866-1934). When he returned to Tokyo in 1893 after nine years in France he became the centre of the Japanese art world. Unhappy with the bureaucracy of the Meiji Bijutsukai, he joined with other young painters and founded an association of Western-style painters. This they named the Hakubakai [White Horse Society] after their favourite brand of unrefined sake, Shirouma, which can also be read hakuba or "white horse".