Born in Edo, the son of a retainer of the Sakura domain. In 1876 he entered Shinkuro Kunisawa’s Shogido studio and encountered Western painting. In the same year he entered the Technical Fine Arts School and studied under Fontanesi, the Italian landscape painter who came out of the Barbizon line. In 1878 he left the school with Shotaro Koyama and others and formed the Juichi-kai. Taking up his teacher’s manner well, he painted quiet landscapes in a predominantly brown key. In 1889 he took part in founding the Meiji Bijutsukai and showed “Spring Furrow” and “Harvest” there. In 1889 he became a professor at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. In 1899 he went to France, visiting the village of Grez outside Paris, where he made major oils such as “The Willows of Grez” and “Autumn at Grez” as well as many watercolours. He returned in 1902, was appointed professor at the Kyoto Higher School of Crafts and moved to Kyoto, and the following year opened the Shogoin Institute of Western Painting. He also took part in founding the Kansai Art Institute, working for the growth of Western painting in Kyoto.