A native of Hiroshima Prefecture, Okuda Genso first studied nihonga close to home under the guidance of his distant relative, Kodama Kibo (1898-1971). Plagued with doubts about his work, Genso left the studio in 1933 to study literature and film, writing screenplays for a living. He returned to Kibo's studio two years later. Genso first exhibited with the Ministry of Education's competitive exhibition (Bunten) in 1936, and from that time he became both a regular exhibitor and a judge for the national exhibitions, even serving as the chairman of the Nitten exhibition in 1957. Although Genso is known for his dedication to the cause of nihonga and the need to develop a distinctly Japanese modern painting, he also became a writer of songs as well as friends with avant-garde oil painters such as Ai Mitsu (1907-1946). Genso was made a member of the Japan Arts Academy in 1973, and awarded the Order of Cultural Merit in 1984.

Genso found his defining theme in painting when he was evacuated to his hometown during the war years. There he rediscovered the wonders of nature, and landscapes have dominated his work ever since. The painting offered here is representative of Genso's work: a landscape of the imagination, Genso generalizes the constituent elements such as trees, sky and water, rendering them with a painterly touch that helps to unify the composition. This simplification is echoed in the limited color palette; in this case, the complementary shades of orange describe the autumn, while the modulated grays of both sky and water describe the effects of light and atmosphere.