Torajiro Watanabe exhibited a folding screen at the
Independent Artists Exhibition in 1919, which attracted
attention for its East Asian style, but here he seems to
have attempted a cubist rendering. The Nichibei Jiho (The Japan-America Times) reported the artist’s comment, “L Train New York” was intended to depict buildings overlaid like a mountain prison and the city
in the blazing heat of summer, but I regret that it was not
very successful” (Torajiro Watanabe, “Looking at the 9th Independent Art Exhibition,” The Japan-America Times, March 21, 1925).