He entered the design course of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1904, studying architecture and interior decoration. In 1908 he went to London to study at his own expense. After returning in 1910, a meeting with Bernard Leach set him on the path of ceramics, and he built a raku kiln in his native Nara. Observing nature closely, he devised designs of his own; the four-petalled flower and the fern are among the best known. Member of the Imperial Art Academy; Living National Treasure, 1955; Order of Culture, 1961.