During the Fifteen Years War,The Fifteen Years War relates to the conflicts in which Japan was engaged 1931-1945, including the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War. Suiun rarely created paintings with overtly war-related themes, preferring instead subject matter that could be accommodated within the conventions of nanga while still communicating patriotic sentiments. For example, his entry for the 1942 Shin-Bunten with Free as a Bird (Enpi gyoyaku), which depicted a kite, a bird with an institutionalized military association through the decoration Order of the Golden Kite (Kinshi kunshō), established in 1890.
