was a Japanese avant-garde painter active from the 1910s to the early 1930s. He is considered to be one of the first and one of the most representative Japanese surrealist painters. Early life Harue Koga was born Yoshio Koga in 1895 to parents Seijun and Ishi Koga in the town of Kurume in Fukuoka Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. His father Seijun was the head priest of a local Buddhist temple belonging to the Pure Land sect of Buddhism. Koga began attending Hiroshi Jinjo Elementary School at age seven, and shortly after his father, Seijun, gave his position of head priest to his son-in-law to focus his time on his son’s education, hoping that Koga would also follow in the family tradition by becoming a Buddhist priest. Koga continued his education at Kurume Higher Elementary School at age 11, and at 14 moved on to Meizenko Middle School. During his time at Meizenko Middle School, he was struck in the eye during a baseball game and his eye began gradually losing its sight. Koga’s friend Takata Rikizo hypothesized that Koga’s partial loss of sight may have influenced the general lack of dimension in his art style. While in middle school, Koga began studying painting with Matsuda Teisho, a self-taught local artist inspired by Western-style art. In 1912, Koga defied the student code of conduct at Meizenko Middle School and was expelled. Local tradition in Kurume records that Koga purposely violated the rule and got himself expelled in order to show his family how serious he was about pursuing his love of art. That same year, at age 17, Koga left Kurume against his family's wishes and traveled to Tokyo with the intent of studying art in a more formal setting. Upon his arrival in Tokyo, Koga enrolled in the Pacific Art Society Institute, a school known for teaching Western style art. In 1913, Koga enrolled in the Institute of the Japanese Watercolor Society, which he became closely affiliated with over the course of his career. Later that year, Koga and Matsuda Teisho formed the Raimoku Western-style Painting Society with a number of local artists in Kurume. Exhibitions hosted by Raimoku would be one of the first venues where Koga could formally exhibit his art. In 1915, he was deeply affected by the suicide of his best friend so his father, concerned about his behavior, made him return home.