in Japan, Kuroda traveled to Kyoto for the first time in his life, and used plein-air techniques to depict famous local sights, such as geisha and ancient temples. Paintings inspired by this trip include Maiko (1893, Tokyo National Museum) and Talk on Ancient Romance (1898, destroyed). When Kuroda returned to Japan, the best-known society for Western-style painting was the Meiji Fine Art Society (Meiji Bijutsukai [ja]), which was strongly under the influence of European Academicism and the Barbizon School, which had been introduced to Japan by the Italian artist Antonio Fontanesi at the government-funded Technical Fine Arts School [it] (Kōbu Bijutsu Gakkō) beginning in 1876. Kuroda submitted several of his paintings to the Meiji Fine Arts Society's annual exhibition, which exhibited nine of his works in 1894. His innovative painting style, heavily influenced by the latest European plein air and Impressionist techniques, shocked Japanese audiences. For example, the art critic Takayama Chogyū wrote that anyone who found this type of painting beautiful must have "poor eyesight." However, many younger artists found Kuroda's innovative style inspiring and flocked to become his students. In particular, Kuroda's style of bright color tones emphasizing the changes of light and atmosphere was considered revolutionary. Kobayashi Mango, one of Kuroda's students from this time, recalled that when Kuroda returned to Japan, it was as if "those who had been groping along a wild dark path suddenly became aware of a single ray of brightness." In 1894, Yamamoto Hōsui, one of the artists who had encouraged Kuroda to study art in France, handed over control of the art school he had founded, the Seikōkan (生巧館), to Kuroda, who inherited all of Yamamoto's students. Kuroda renamed the school Tenshin Dōjō (天心道場) and remodeled its pedagogy to focus on Western precepts and plein-air painting. Controversy In April 1895, Kuroda helped to organize the Fourth National Industrial Exhibition, held in Kyoto; he also submitted Morning Toilette for exhibition in the same venue. Although he was awarded a prize for the painting, the exhibition of a picture of a nude woman before so many visitors outraged many, and led to a furor in the press where critics condemned the perceived flouting of social standards. None criticized the technical aspects of the painting, choosing instead to lambaste Kuroda for its subject matter. Kume, Kuroda's friend from his Paris days, wrote a spirited defense of the nude figure in art for newspaper publication,