Born in Tokyo to an American diplomat, Lilian Miller was a prominent woodblock print artist, as well as a painter and poet during the first half of the 20th century. At the suggestion of artist Helen Hyde, Miller began her formal artistic training at age 9 with Tomonobu Kano, the head of the Kano school at that time. Her second teacher, Bokusen Shimada, gave her the go, or artist name, Gyokka. At age 14, Miller’s father became head of the State Department’s Far East Department and the family moved to the United States. Miller returned to East Asia following her graduation from Vassar College in 1917. After brief stay in Seoul, she moved back to Japan in 1920. Miller began selling her woodblock prints, working with prominent carver Matsumoto and the printer Kumakichi Nishimura.