Kuroda is one of the most important Japanese printmakers living today. He became famous in 1979 when the Cleveland Museum of Art organized the exhibition: 21 Young Contemporary Japanese Printmakers.
Kuroda suggests that things move so quickly in Tokyo that he wants to reflect the speed and movement in his bicycles. The umbrella is a very traditional symbol of Japan.
In a statement Kuroda Shigeki said that he has never intentionally made sketches of real umbrellas and bicycles but used those images only to “express the change, flow, and expanse of time in a pictorial dimension.”