In 1868, Togai started a private art school and published A Guide to Western Style Painting (1871). Takahashi is regarded by many as the first true Yōga painter.
In 1855, the Tokugawa bakufu established the Bansho Shirabesho (Institute for the Study of Barbarian Documents), a translation and research institute for western studies, including a section to investigate western art. This section was headed by Kawakami Tōgai, whose assistant Takahashi Yuichi was a student of English artist Charles Wirgman.