When Rui was born in the mid-19th century, the Yoshida family was making traditional paintings for the Nakatsu warrior clan in what is now Ōita Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. However, no males were born into the family to carry on the Yoshida name and work. As was often done in Japan at the time, a family without a male heir would adopt a male from another family. Rui’s parents selected a young man, Kasaburō Haruno (1861–1894), whose father was also a painter for the Nakatsu clan, to be their adopted son and to marry Rui. Kasaburō had been trained by early Western-style artists in Kyoto in their use of sketch, watercolors, and oils. Later he became the art teacher at Shūyūkan Junior High School in Fukuoka. There he became a pioneer in the Western-style by starting an art club and by writing two manuals on learning to paint with Western-style oils. (Allen et al., 19-20)