In 1906 he left the middle school attached to the Tokyo Normal School to devote himself to painting, and at the same time became a Christian. He studied under Seiki Kuroda at the Hakubakai’s Aoibashi institute, and in 1910, at nineteen, his work was selected for the fourth Bunten. He grew close to the Shirakaba circle, and in 1912 took part in forming the Fyuzan-kai. He made many self-portraits and portraits. He then turned sharply from an Impressionist manner towards realism. Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1916, he moved from place to place but left masterpieces such as the “Reiko” portraits. In 1929, after fifty days in Manchuria at the invitation of the South Manchuria Railway, he stopped at Tokuyama and died there. The unfinished “Tokuyama Landscape” was his last work.