Born in Nihombashi, Tokyo; his given name was Shinzaburo. In 1897, on seeing work by Taikan Yokoyama and others at the Japan Painting Association’s joint exhibition, he resolved to become a painter, and in 1898 entered the school of Tomoto Kobori. His work was selected for the first Inten, and he formed the Shiko-kai with Choshu Isoda and others; in 1900 Shiko Imamura joined and the group was renamed the Koji-kai. In 1902 he joined Tomoto’s study group for history and genre painting; in 1907, when the Bunten was founded, he took part as a councillor in founding the Kokuga Gyokusei-kai, and his work was selected for the first Bunten. In 1911, under the patronage of Sankei Hara, he moved to Odawara. In 1912 he moved to Oiso in Kanagawa Prefecture, and from about 1918 began his study of Ryokan. In 1944 he became a professor at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, and after the war, in 1948, received the Order of Culture. Through many works of great refinement he, with Kokei and Seison, raised the artistic level of modern Japanese painting.