The lesson Ono learnt he tells his friends while working in Takeda firm in his early days as a young artist was that while it was “right to look up to teachers, it was always important to question their authority” (1986, p. 42). We can see this lesson exemplified when he confronts and refuses to hand over his paintings to his master, Ogata-San. However, he does not follow this lesson when he becomes a master himself, and his authority is challenged by his pupil, Kuroda. He goes even to the length of getting him arrested. Instead, he is proud of what he and his pupils are doing by being “nothing less than the spearhead of the new spirit” emerging in Japan (1986, p. 42). He has transformed his pupils in such a way that, he adds, anyone they meet with having “disagreeable views, they would be quick to squeeze him out” (1986, p. 43).