His given name was Mioji. He entered the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1890, became friendly with his contemporary Shinrai Amakusa, was taught by Gyokusho Kawabata, and graduated in 1895 in the second cohort of the school’s painting course, taking first place with his graduation work. While copying old paintings he also won prizes repeatedly at the Japan Painting Association exhibitions, and from 1896 taught the preparatory course at his old school as an adjunct; but in 1898 he resigned along with the others in solidarity with the principal Tenshin Okakura, took part in founding the Japan Art Institute, and became a full member. His bold new attempt at a “line-less” manner was harshly called “morotai”, the blurred style. In 1903 he travelled to India with Taikan, and in 1904 to America with Tenshin and Taikan, returning the following year by way of Europe. In 1906 he moved to Izura with the Japan Art Institute and worked there. In 1908 he left Izura because of an eye disease and rested in Tokyo. He brought fresh technique into the world of traditional Japanese painting and did much for the development of modern Japanese painting, but his illness advanced and his sight failed; he died suddenly at Yoyogi in Tokyo in 1911, at the age of thirty-six.