On 30 November 1901, a 25-year-old Japanese man was about to board a ship at Yokohama, the closest major port to Tokyo. It was the young man’s first step on what would be a long overseas adventure in Europe. He had just obtained a Diploma of Sculpture from Tokyo School of Fine Arts, which was the predecessor of present day Tokyo University of the Arts, in July. He was heading to Belgium, a country he had never visited and knew so little about, to study sculpture. One can only imagine what his feelings and thoughts were. Full of ambition and hope? Pressure to accomplish his mission? He was certainly excited to discover a culture very different from that of his homeland. Maybe he was thinking about his pregnant wife, whom he had married just a few months before. A wife who for the next nine years patiently awaited his return .

The young man’s name was Kozaburo Takeishi, and he would eventually leave his mark on the art world. Takeishi embarked upon his trip during the period known as the Meiji (c.1868–1912) in the Japanese calendar, but known in the Western world as the Meiji Restoration. This was an extremely important era of transition in Japanese history, as for over 200 years (1630–1854) the country had sealed itself off from outsiders. This isolation allowed it to develop a unique culture - ‘Japonaism’ - which inspired the European art world. But Japan’s reopening to the Western world also required that it undergo a rapid adaptation to modern realities in order to win international respect and recognition. In response, many Japanese students went abroad to absorb Western culture, and Takeishi was one of them.